Sunday, January 25, 2009

Rogue Security Hurts Reputations

A cautionary tale...
Whether he's known as a boardroom brawler or maybe the savior of SemGroup LP, John Catsimatidis doesn't mind his reputation as a man of his convictions or contradictions...


His takeover of United Refining paid back creditors 100 cents on the dollar, but hit a judicial bump when the company's security apparatus admitted to illegally wiretapping some staffers at the Warren headquarters.

Catsimatidis was never accused of any personal wrongdoing in the wiretapping case. He said that the surveillance began before he owned the company and before it was actually illegal under Pennsylvania law.

"The law changed in 1986, but they kept doing it," he recalled. "I didn't know about it until afterwards."

The security firm kept up the wiretaps after Catsimatidis took control of United Refining, according to reports. He replied that it was stopped and the offending employee was fired once he discovered the practice. (more)

Due Diligence...
CEOs... Quarterly inspections to discover electronic eavesdropping can uncover rogue Security operations like this one. We can help. Please call us.