Washington Post, 5 July 2010: . . . . In one such example, Mikhail Fridman, a Russian oligarch who owned the financial consortium Alfa Group, wanted possibly incriminating information on his rival, Leonid Reiman, and his conglomerate, IPOC. To get the data, Fridman’s Washington lobbyists hired Diligence, an intelligence firm, to investigate Reiman.

The dispute traveled to Bermuda, where the government had hired the local office of the KPMG accounting firm to investigate IPOC’s ownership and infrastructure. Diligence agents sought KPMG staffers who would leak information. They targeted a couple of personality profiles: a partying, young male or an insecure, frumpy female. Ultimately, though, they co-opted British accountant Guy Enright, who did not fit their profiles.

Instead of simply asking him to give or sell them data, Diligence’s operatives appealed to his patriotism. Posing as British intelligence officers, they told Enright that the secret documents he was providing were crucial to national security. The lobbying firm paid Diligence $25,000 a month plus costs for its trickery. Enright dutifully turned over the data, and Diligence rewarded him with a Rolex. He didn’t realize he’d been duped until the secret sting later became public. . . .