John Wick

John Wick is the founder of International Security Solutions Limited.

Background

The Wall Street Journal reports that Wick is a former SAS officer:

Mr. Wick served in Britain's elite Special Air Service regiment and reached the rank of major, according to Brian Goswell, a retired businessman who says he was chairman of two companies established by Mr. Wick. Sir Brian says the two companies provided securities services but were liquidated after getting into financial strife.

The Sunday Times reported in May 2009 that until a year previously Wick had been a member of the Carlton Club, which only allows Conservative supporters to join.

MPs expenses story

In May 2009, the Wall Street Journal claimed that Wick was involved in marketing data about MPs' expenses to the British press.

Earlier this year Mr. Wick approached the (London) Times offering to sell details of reimbursement claims by members of Parliament going back years, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Mr. Wick said he was representing the person who obtained the data, who wanted to be paid £250,000, according a person familiar with the matter. Mr. Wick asked for £50,000 for himself to help analyze the data, according to the person familiar with the matter. A spokeswoman for the Times declined to comment.

It is probably significant that, as the story noted, The Times and the Wall Street Journal are both owned by News Corporation. The Wall Street Journal story was itself picked up by another News Corporation paper, the Sunday Times, which claimed that it "was not offered the disks as the ring wanted the expenses details to be printed over several days in a daily paper." The Sunday Times said of Wicks :

His name has become known to several newspapers since the Telegraph began publishing details from leaked computer disks containing details of all MPs’ expenses receipts.

Yesterday The Wall Street Journal exposed Wick as the man who arranged the deal.

In fact, the Wall Street Journal's wording was somewhat more circumspect:

The data was later obtained by the Daily Telegraph, which has not detailed how it came upon the information or responded to suggestions that it paid to acquire it. The Daily Telegraph declined to comment on whether it acquired the data from Mr. Wick.

The Wall Street Journal also claimed to have been offered the data by a third party acting for Wick.

On Friday a London-based public relations consultant working for Mr. Wick, Henry Gewanter, said he would give The Wall Street Journal access to the reimbursement information if the Journal agreed not to identify Mr. Wick as its source. Mr. Gewanter said he was making the same offer to British newspapers and expected to complete the arrangement early next week.

According to the Sunday Times, Wicks was approached to act as a middleman after previous failed attempts to market the data which had led to a number of press stories, including revelations about Home Secretary Jacqui Smith's expenses.

The Mail on Sunday suggested that Wick's role in the affair was linked to his military backgound:

The House of Commons has recently employed former soldiers as ‘data controllers’ to prevent MPs’ personal information being leaked.

It would be ironic if the decision to beef up security in this way led to information being passed to Mr Wick.