Spies defect from MI6 (1998)

Spies defect from MI6 for shadowy careers in the City.
Nicholas Rufford
15 November 1998
The Sunday Times
BRITAIN'S spies are coming out of the shadows to make a killing in the City. Former officers of MI6, the overseas intelligence service, have found a more lucrative way to make a living than espionage. They are setting up consultancies to help British companies get the edge over foreign rivals and avoid the hazards of turbulent Third World markets. Oil companies, banks and defence contractors have signed up the new firms which charge a minimum fee of about #10,000 per assignment.
Instead of cloaking their past in the time-honoured euphemism of the "diplomatic service", they make a discreet virtue of their careers. "What clients want is somebody they can trust who, while not acting with the authority of the former service, will not act outside it," said Nigel West, the author and espionage expert.

MI6 has given its tacit approval and even encouraged spies to set up on their own after being forced to cut the size of its intelligence branch.

Ciex, a London-based intelligence company, has cornered a lucrative market in what it calls "strategic advice and intelligence". Its name is pronounced "CX" as in the intelligence reports produced by MI6.

Among its senior staff is Hamilton McMillan, who until 1996 headed MI6's counter-terrorism offensive and was controller of its European operations.

McMillan wears a distinctive hat that gives him the appearance of a latter-day Orson Welles and his espionage career includes the controversial recruiting of Howard Marks, the drug dealer, as an MI6 informant.

Michael Oatley, Ciex's co-founder, headed MI6's Middle Eastern department and spearheaded the talks between the British government and the IRA which laid the foundations for the current ceasefire.

Ciex's brochure promises a "confidential service restricted to a small group of very substantial clients". Customers describe the service as "pricey but top-drawer".

Hakluyt, another intelligence company founded by two former spies, has set up a board of establishment figures to vet its methods and cement its credentials. The firm is already doing business with a quarter of the top 100 FTSE firms.

Christopher James, its managing director, was until recently in charge of MI6's liaison with industry. Mike Reynolds, another director, was regarded as one of its brightest officers. Company literature describes them as former members of "the foreign service".

However, the firm's brochure makes it clear that the service can deliver information that clients "will not receive by the usual government, media and commercial routes". "They are filling a market gap between government intelligence and run-of-the-mill private investigators and they are doing it very well and very successfully," said Patrick Grayson, a commercial investigations expert.

The firms insist they are not involved in espionage and use only the skills and international knowledge they acquired in MI6. "To use former contacts is forbidden," said one.

"The rule is that there must be 'clear blue water' between what we do now and what we did then."