Broker Used Spy Cameras and Private Eyes to Hunt Down a Leaker

(Bloomberg) -- BGC Partners Inc. was concerned that a mole within its ranks was leaking information to a rival.

So it concocted a plan to spy on two of its brokers by placing pinhole cameras in the ceiling above their trading desks. Then, to confirm the identity of the recipient of the secret data -- one of two possible brothers -- it had photos taken by “surveillance agents” of a manager outside a pub.

The lengths that BGC went to curtail the leaks was laid bare this week in a London court, where the world’s second-biggest interdealer broker is suing the U.K. operations of Tradition over the misuse of confidential information and the poaching of a flagship team.

The small and fiercely competitive world of brokering is no stranger to enduring recruitment battles. Both BGC and Tradition have already fought lawsuits over the poaching of rivals. The current case has heard tales of deleted WhatsApp messages and jail threats -- and surveillance. But having brokers followed isn’t a particularly unusual practice, according to BGC’s Anthony Warner, who oversees the brokerages in Europe.

“In the inter-dealer broker world, where we’ve all had our day, it wouldn’t come as a surprise to me if that were to happen,” said Warner, adding that he knew of another time when brokers had been followed in the course of litigation.

The rivals are fighting over what happened to a closely-guarded BGC spreadsheet that contained data on the revenue figures of brokers in London.

The information is “a map” of its London business, Rob Kitchin, who oversaw the brokers for BGC, told the court. The data was photographed and passed by a BGC employee to Tony Vowell, a manager at Tradition, around the same time as negotiations were picking up over the recruitment of a team of six brokers on a currency-trading team.

Tradition, the London arm of Cie Financiere Tradition SA, says that it never used the data or any of the information to recruit BGC’s staff. The entire case is a misconceived attempt to damage a rival, an attorney for Tradition said.

BGC caught junior staffer Robert Goan taking snapshots of data on his computer screen after installing spy cameras over the trading desks. Several times between November 2016 and July 2017, he shared his photos with another broker, Simon Cuddihy, who passed the information to Vowell. Both Goan and Cuddihy settled the matter with BGC. Cuddihy, who remains at the company, is set to testify later in the trial.

BGC said in a letter to the judge that it then carried out “limited surveillance” of Vowell to confirm his identity and ensure he was in London when it planned to serve court documents on him. The firm says it needed to take photographs to ensure it was accusing the correct brother, since they both worked at Tradition.

Cuddihy was shown pictures of Vowell outside a pub and asked to confirm his identity, Tradition’s attorney Neil Kitchener said.

Under questioning from Kitchner, BGC’s Warner acknowledged in court Thursday that he would have wanted to know about any tailing.

“I would like to know, of course, and I’m sure anyone who has been followed would like to have known,” Warner said.

The executive said he had never asked for anyone to be followed.

“I’m equipped to run brokers, I’m not equipped to be an investigator,” he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Browning in London at jbrowning9@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net, Christopher Elser, Peter Chapman

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