In this article, Dick Smith QPM examines the NY case, which underscores the real risks investigators face when they do not adequately consider the issues addressed in the National Security Act 2023.
Does it sound far-fetched that a routine trace enquiry could be a ‘false flag’ approach from a foreign power with ulterior motives or maybe an organised crime group? Believe you me, it happens . . . it has happened to us. Would your procedures recognise it?
Amongst the excellent and eclectic cast of speakers at the ABI Annual Conference in Solihull last month was a senior leader from the Home Office, who came along to ensure delegates were au fait with the National Security Act 2023. The ‘Know Your Client’ message reinforced the legal requirement for all UK professional investigators to carry out stringent due diligence on those entities who send them instructions. It should be the natural action of all ABI members and, when we sign up to the Code of Conduct, part of our documented automatic processes.
China refers to its Operations, Fox Hunt and Sky Net, as global efforts aimed at ‘fugitives’, but US prosecutors say they are “intended to stamp out dissent using extortion and intimidation”. Evidence of its implementation abounds, not only in USA, but right the way across Europe . . . and certainly within the UK.
As I have previously described on the ABI News pages, a simple investigation case that began for former Sergeant Mike McMahon in 2016, brought his conviction in 2023 for acting as an unregistered foreign agent, stalking, and conspiracy. This week, the clean-cut, former police detective, with multiple awards and medals, moved only into its next phase when he was handed an 18-month prison sentence. For him, the nightmare continues.
Former NYPD Sergeant Mike McMahon
The New York Times recounts that McMahon had been approached by a mysterious client with scant information about his ‘subject’, Mr Xu. McMahon’s lawyers claimed that he believed the client worked for a construction company to which Xu owed money. He did not question his belief that he was working for a private client even after learning that Xu was being sought by the Chinese government; “parallel civil and criminal proceedings being quite common.” McMahon carried out surveillance on Xu and provided confidential data to his clients.
McMahon became the third person in less than a month to be sentenced in Brooklyn in connection with Chinese repression of its citizens abroad. Many countries are trying to counter the spread of clandestine Chinese police stations; by 2022, three had been identified in the UK.
In our case, the approach was from a ‘recruitment agency’, claiming they needed to locate a large number of Chinese nationals believed to be in the UK, with the offer of lucrative jobs. Our protocols ensured we insist on documented evidence of end-client identity in order to process the data. The ‘agency’ procrastinated, and the instruction dissolved. It was so clearly a Fox Hunt sting. MI5 warns that the most likely approaches will be from China, Russia, and Iran. The Home Office representative at the ABI conference stressed we should consider all possibilities. It is the investigator’s responsibility to ‘Know Your Client’. We don’t want another Sergeant McMahon.
Dick Smith QPM - IP Forensics GB Ltd
