Control Risks Group

Control Risks Group is a British private security company.

History

Foundation

Author Tony Geraghty describes the genesis of Control Risks as follows:

In 1974, David Walker, a former SAS officer, was commissioned to examine how an insurance company, Hogg Robinson, might exploit the security market. He collaborated with Julian Radcliffe, managing director of a political-risk insurance company in the same group.

Authors Jonathan Bloch and Patrick Fitzgerald state that the company was the brainchild of Radcliffe, "A London insurance broker, who became a director after the wholesale resignation of the board of Control Risks' previous incarnation, the A1 Insurance Agency.

According to Geraghty, the new Control Risks subsidiary started out as a shelf company acquired by Tim Royle. Walker was the firm's managing director and sole employee. During this time he travelled to Rome and Milan to advise on kidnap cases, established negotiations procedures and recruited two fellow SAS veterans, Arish Turle and Simon Adams-Dale. Walker left to join KMS in 1975, by which time Radcliffe had approached Lloyd's underwriters, offering kidnap and ransom ('K&R') insurance cover alongside a service to mitigate the risk.

Early Operations

Increasing custom from Lloyds and other international companies saw Control Risks hiring more ex-SAS personnel in the late 1970s.

In 1977, Turle and Adams-Dale were arrested in Colombia while arranging the release of US businessman George Curtis for a ransom of $400,000. They used their 10 weeks' imprisonment to rewrite Control Risks' Standard Operational Procedures.

In 1979, Control Risks negotiated the release of two British officials from Lloyds Bank International after they had been kidnapped by guerrillas in El Salvador.

Management buy-out

According to an early version of the company's website, "five members of the management team negotiated a management buy out of the company" in 1980-81, "establishing Control Risks as an independent, employee majority-owned private company, able to give impartial and objective advice to the advantage of our clients."

Bloch and Fitzgerald's British Intelligence Covert Action stated that at the time of publication (1983), Control Risks operated from offices in Victoria, with a staff of 60 and a turnover of £1 million. Managing director Arish Turle was joined on the board by two other ex-SAS officers as well as former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Robert Mark, General Sir Frank King, Peter Goss and Major-General Richard Clutterbuck. Staff members included Peter Janke and Richard Sims, both of whom, like Clutterbuck, had links to the Institute for the Study of Conflict.

Control Risks Diversify

Control Risks gradually diversified its activities becoming a risk analysis and security consultancy. They hired Major General Richard Clutterbuck (also ISC and a "media staple") to be its counter-terrorism specialist. Clutterbuck pushed Frank Kitson's infamous counterinsurgency doctrines extending them into industrial disputes, political demonstrations etc. conflating political dissent with political violence. Clutterbuck spied on British animal rights groups (claiming to be writing a book thus also confounding legitimate journalism's enquiries) for the chemical industry which together with food manufacturers commissioned a Control Risks 'study'. The Observer reported on Control Risks' 'study' dealing with the anti-apartheid movement, funded by a syndicate of companies doing business in S. Africa (£1,500 a head) briefing on potential violence by the campaign then led by Peter Hain (BOSS later tried to frame Hain for a bank robbery (see Hain's book 'A Putney Plot'). In this case they tied all anti-apartheid groups in with terrorist groups.

Control Risks was one of the three mercenary firms that received a total of ?30.5m in the year 2004 from the British Foreign Office. Along with ArmorGroup the firm is being paid a combined total of £50,000 a day to protect bureaucrats stationed in Iraq.

Overview

According to their website, in 1980-81, five members of the management team negotiated a buyout of the company and became an independent employee majority-owned company. Currently, the company is 82% owned by its employees. In 1995, CRG added an investigative division, and by 2003 they had become an international company with close to 400 employees and offices in seventeen countries including Iraq and China.

CRG's four main operating areas are: Political and security risk analysis, confidential investigations, security consultancy, and crisis response. The majority of their clients are large multi-nationals; they state 83% of the FTSE 100 use one or more of their services..

CRG has a long history of working with the energy sector, covering ground in Algeria, Angola, Congo, Nigeria, Russia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Dubai, Sudan and Yemen. The main services they provide include political and security risk assessments, supplying site security managers for dangerous projects and kidnap and evacuation consultancy They do not employ armed guards, acting only on an advisory, consultive and investigatory level, although it seems they have guards in Iraq made up of ex-SAS, Nepalese and Fijian soldiers.

Iraq connections

CRG are seen as an 'Iraq supplier': it "assess the level and nature of security and political risks to personnel, assets and operations, and to offer advice on appropriate risk mitigation strategies", the use of the term assets there would suggest involvement in the covert side of things. They are also said to provide "protection for personnel, facilities and operations. Control Risk security consultants plan and implement security procedures and tasks, including security audits; collecting essential local information; co-coordinating with the coalition administration; managing VIP close protection; and providing secure travel, communications, local guard force supervision and "meet-and-greet services."

sigbonline.com has them branching out with the gizmo market with their AUTOMATED 'CRTRAVELTRACKER' PRODUCT - lets you know when employees stray out of the compound and have been kidnapped.

The interface with New Labour came through Demos and the Foreign Policy Centre (FPC) : The FPC organised a conference before Bush's election: "The USA in the International Community: Creating Effective Strategies for Multilateralism with the British American Security Information Council". In the immediate aftermath of the US elections, this stated the conference:

"will assess and debate how the new political landscape will affect America's participation in international governance. Bringing together key figures from government, politics, the media, NGOs and business from both Europe and the US, the conference will focus on how proponents of multilateral frameworks can seek to foster strategies for maintaining and enhancing multilateral co-operation."

The Conference was by invitation only. The Guardian blythly stated that: "The [FPC] will make foreign policy feel less like the preserve of an elite and more the topic of national conversation". It was funded from the following sources: BBC World Service, BP Amoco, Bruce Naughton Wade, Clifford Chance, Cluff Mining, Commonwealth Institute, Control Risks Group, Lord Gavron CBE, Paul Hamlyn, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, Interbrand Newell and Sorrell, Rio Tinto and Royal Commonwealth Society. All of whom fund the FPC. Control Risks also work with Demos; and have a very close relationship (out-sourced merger) to the government and army in Iraq:

"The Government is taking all steps possible to ensure the safety of our personnel in Iraq. We have provided secure compounds for our missions in Baghdad and Basrah, which are located in the "International Zones" in both cities. The missions are guarded by trained Armor Group personnel. Outside the international zones, our staff travels in armoured vehicles under the protection of trained personnel from Control Risks Group. There is a dedicated security manager at each post. The FCO Overseas Security Adviser visits both posts regularly and his recommendations have been put into effect. Our one-man mission in Kirkuk is located in a well-guarded US compound."

Marine Terminals dispute

Frank Connolly of Irish trade union SIPTU said in September 2009 that British property company Peel Ports had hired Control Risks "to monitor striking staff using sophisticated visual and audio surveillance equipment" during the Marine Terminals dispute at Dublin Port.

Earlier, in August 2009 SIPTU regional organiser Christy McQuillan claimed that Control Risks had been operating at Marine Terminals since at least May and that it's presence was an abuse of Irish law:

“It has only been in the last few days that we have been able to confirm the identity of the organisation and it is now incumbent on the Private Security Authority to prosecute Peel Ports and its Irish subsidiary Marine Terminals for flouting Irish law. These people are guarding and patrolling company premises, observing and reporting on SIPTU pickets, challenging people entering the Marine Terminals facilities, escorting people off the premises and providing protection to management personnel and strike breakers passing the pickets.

“All of these are licensable activities yet Control Risks people refuse to identify themselves or even confirm on whose behalf they are acting. Last May management had the gall to bring Control Risks personnel with them into conciliation talks at the Labour Relations Commission and refused to engage in talks without them being present, despite a request by an officer of the state that they leave.

Clients & Advice

• CRG is currently providing services for Bechtel and Halliburton in Iraq

• CRG has joined with the Energy Industry Council, the largest Trade Association for British companies that service the world's energy industries

• CRG prepared a War, Terrorism and Political Violence briefing released by Hiscox Syndicates in October of 2004. The briefing examines the trouble regions around the world, recent acts of violence, and assessments for the near future.

• In 1992, CRG warned their client Unocal regarding their project in Burma that the government "habitually makes use of forced labor to construct roads" and concluded that Unocal and its partners would have "little freedom of manoeuvre."

• CRG was hired by the parents of Madeleine McCann, a British child who went missing in Portugal, to 'check reported sightings and build up profiles of likely abductors.'

People

Directors and Officers

• Jonathan Fry: Chairman
• Nigel Churton: Chief Executive Officer
• Richard Fenning: Chief Operating Officer
• Michael Martin: Chief Financial Officer
• John Conyngham: Director EMEA
• Mike Horner: Director Asia-Pacific
• Alison Crosland: Director Information Services
• Eric Westropp: Director Response Services
• Christopher Grose: Director of business development
• Robin Baillie: Non-executive Director
• Christopher Kemball: Non-executive Director
• Michael Rose (former SAS commander): Non-executive Director
• Jim Drinkhall: Associate Director of Investigations
• Daniel Linkser – Head of Desk - Analyst - Americas
• Eleanor Murphy – Head of Americas desk

Of note here is that Michael Rose, who, although making money out of the chaos and carnage of US/UK policy in Iraq, has publically spoken about impeaching Tony Blair.

Other employees

• Kevin Rosser - terrorism analyst as at January 2004
• Victor Ferreira - Dir. Info. Prods.
• Gary Noesner
• Jim Brooks - SVP Crisis & Security Mgt.
• Elaine Carey
• William Daly
• Douglas Olin - Senior Vice President and General Counsel
• Andreas Carleton-Smith - President and CEO, North America: he spent 10 years in the British Army, the last three of which were spent on active duty with the SAS, his responsibilities included commanding elements of the UKs counter-terrorist team. He was also awarded the Military Cross for gallantry in the former Republic of Yugoslavia.

References, Resources and Contact

Resources

• Sourcewatch Control Risks Group
• Duncan Campbell, Marketing the new 'Dogs of War', Center for Public Integrity, 30 October 2002.
• Duncan Campbell, Cozy, Clubby and Covert, Center for Public Integrity, 30 October 2002.
• "Cracking Crime in Brazil" by James Wygand, GM of Southern Cone, CRG in Sao Paulo, Brazil, July 2000.
• Philip Alcock, Senior Consultant, Crisis Management at CRG, "How to Handle A Crisis"
• Letter from Sir James Adams of CRG to the UK Parliament, 30 June 1998
• British Victim of Baghdad Bomb Named by PA News, 25 May 2004
• "Study Finds London Top Target for Terrorist Attack" by Jo Mazzocchi,ABC: The World Today, 12 November 2003.
• A range of news stories can be found here
• Testimony of John Conyngham Esq Global Director of Investigations before the US House of Representatives 9 May 2002 on the Recovering Dictator's Plunder a vital endeavour for any mercenary worth their salt.
• Liz Chong and Richard Beeston, Diplomatic guards may quit in Baghdad pay row, The Times, 27 May 2006.
• Max Hastings, We must fight our instinctive distaste for mercenaries, The Guardian, 2 August 2006.