Finance industry targeted by ‘nest of spies’ – author
THE Channel Islands is ‘a nest of spies’ targeting the financial industry, a man who claims to have been a French secret service agent has said.
As well as French operatives, French national Maxime Renahy said that Russians and Americans were also trying to access the islands’ secrets.
Mr Renahy, who worked in the Jersey finance sector for three years, has published a book alleging to have been a member of the French version of MI6.
In his book La Ou est L’Argent – Where the Money Lies – he said he worked undercover for the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure while working at one of Jersey’s largest firms.
As well as seducing lawyers, accountants and finance workers to obtain sensitive information, Mr Renahy said he assisted French hackers to access Channel Island servers and smuggled information to Paris on encrypted memory sticks.
‘The offshore centres are nests of spies because there are hubs with high level of informations going through,’ he said.
‘I understand it’s easier for people to think they live in a protected bubble.’
He said this sort of spying by a range of nations had been taking place in the Channel Islands for years.
‘The information in the book is just factual and smaller compared of the real scale of it,’ Mr Renahy said.
The 40-year-old, who now works as a legal counsel, campaigner and author, claims that his work has been influential in tax cases in several European countries and helped prompt France’s blacklisting of Jersey seven years ago, a move which was revoked shortly afterwards.
The comments come from an interview by the Guernsey Press’s sister paper, the Jersey Evening Post, who interviewed Mr Renahy in Paris this week.
Guernsey Police would not be drawn on whether they had looked into problems with espionage locally.
‘On matters such as this we can neither confirm or deny any knowledge of this type of activity,’ a spokesman said.
‘However, reputable businesses take steps to prevent and detect such activity. The providence of the reported material in the Jersey Evening Post is not known and law enforcement would not wish to comment any further.’
The States of Guernsey did not wish to comment beyond what the police had said.
Finance is the largest sector employer in Guernsey. It provides more than 6,700 jobs in Guernsey – 20% of all jobs in the island. More than 14,000 finance companies were registered in Guernsey last year – which is 79% of all the companies based here.
Matters involving Guernsey’s defence and international relations are handled by the UK Government. The Home Office has been approached for comment.
