Nick Day

Nick Day is Chief Executive Officer of Diligence: A former officer of Britain's Security Service (MI5) Day is a founding partner of Diligence. Following his government service, Day worked as a senior investigator for the Maxima Group, a leading European fraud investigations firm. According to the Independent Day joined the Marines at the age of 18 before becoming an officer in the Special Boat Service, the maritime equivalent of the SAS. Following time in Iraq, Northern Ireland and Bosnia (where he gathered intelligence), he became as spy, joining MI5 and specialising in Middle Eastern terrorist groups. He set up Diligence with ex-CIA agent Mike Baker in 2000. The Independent also stated:

"In association with Kuwaiti partner the Al-Mal Investment Company, the firm works for blue chips, media agencies and non-governmental organisations either already in Iraq or about to move in. Services include vetting local employees and partners, due diligence on potential investments, daily intelligence briefs, protecting compounds and payrolls, and providing bodyguards. Fees are based on the level of risk involved."

Diligence has further links to the US via the heavyweight Republican lobbying firm Barbour Griffith & Rogers (BGR) which has invested in the business, Diligence also works in association with New Bridge Strategies, a US firm with links to BGR that was set up to help companies secure Iraqi contracts. Clients are understood to include the American governmental agency USAID and a number of companies associated with Halliburton. For Day "We will go where there's a market for our services. People just feel uncomfortable in emerging markets."

Business Week] reported how KPMG the accounting giant was infiltrated by Diligence in 2005. Barbour Griffith & Rogers, one of the most formidable lobbying firms in Washington, represented a Russian conglomerate whose archrival, IPOC International Growth Fund Ltd., was being audited by KPMG's Bermuda office. Day posed as an MI5 agent and got an accountant to drop off inside information.