NEVER GIVE UP

IN the murky world of corporate espionage there is absolutely no murkier bunch than Black Cube, the private spy company founded and run by ex-members of Mossad and other elements of the octopus this is the Israeli intelligence community. The Black Cube ?advisory board? claims a minimum of two former Mossad heads ? Mossad being Israel?s foreign intelligence and assassination bureau.

Guess where Black Cube has its main centre of operations? Answer: Ropemaker Street in the City of London, coming from Moorgate Tube.

Black Cube has its official HQ in Tel Aviv, needless to say. But in accordance with its snazzy website, the business?s operations cover over 60 countries. London is the foremost location ? with regard to global anonymity, never mind simple travel and communications ? to use an international network of James Bonds. Forbes magazine estimates a quarter of Black Cube?s 100 fulltime staff are based at Ropemaker Street.

Black Cube was founded in 2010 2010 by CEO Dan Zorella, an ex-member of the Israeli Defence Force intelligence, and Avi Yanus, a former IDF strategic planning officer (i.e. he prepared war plans against Hezbollah and Iran). Black Cube describes its main business mission as providing ?litigation services?. Put simply, it isn’t spying for technical secrets but rather providing clients with evidence to use in open court when suing business rivals, or defending themselves against litigation by regulatory agencies, ex-employees or aggrieved commercial partners.

Black Cube denies it uses illegal methods of hacking phones or computers. It argues that information must be obtained legally or else it can?t be utilized in court. But that still leaves Black Cube operatives a lot of latitude. In classic Mossad fashion, Black Cube uses impersonation, deception and false cover stories to elicit information from the unwary. Disgruntled former employees, secretaries and mistresses are weak points which might be exploited.

WHO USES BLACK CUBE?

Among those who have used Black Cube?s services include disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein, to collect personal information about women accusing him of sexual harassment; Taiwanese shipping mogul Nobu Su in his ongoing billion dollar suit against RBS (so assume Black Cube operatives have been active in Scotland); and the London-based, Jewish-Iranian Tchenguiz brothers, who enormous property empire was felled in the 2008 financial crisis when bank creditors called in loans.

In 2011, Robert and Vincent Tchenguiz were arrested and prosecuted by the British Serious Fraud Office (SFO), who claimed they were involved in skulduggery with the Icelandic Koupthing Bank. Koupthing had funded the brother?s property investments before the bank collapsed. They immediately hired Black Cube who found evidence that the lawyers appointed to liquidate Koupthing had lined their very own pockets ? and being associated with other of the bank?s creditors.

Whatever their actual culpability in the cesspit of Icelandic banking, the Tchenguiz brothers could actually use the Black Cube information to claim these were being made scapegoats. The SFO case collapsed ? partly because of its legendary incompetence ? and the agency was forced to cover the brothers �4.5m in damages plus costs. These presumably included Black Cube?s fees.

The litigation of Nobu Su against RBS is still ongoing, with Black Cube help. The backdrop: as in other industries, the banks have turned the prosaic bulk shipping sector into a vast, unstable derivatives market, trading instruments predicated on putative freight rates. This market was sucked in to the maelstrom of the 2008 global financial meltdown.

As a result, Nobu Su?s TMT shipping line ? one of the world?s biggest ? was bankrupted. Su claims his banker, RBS, was responsible. He says RBS falsified documents, manipulated company valuations in its favour, and misused his accounts. Black Cube Whether true or false, these claims sound familiar to anyone versed in the proven scandal of the RBS Global Restructuring Group, which did over thousands of small company customers. Nobu is suing RBS for �3b. If I were RBS boss Ross McEwan, or Fred ?the Shred? Goodwin, I would not sleep well at night knowing Black Cube was out there.