Online personal and reputational attacks, threats and disparagement, unfounded allegations, disinformation campaigns, impersonation schemes, disturbing online threats, and harassment are not the type of risks many of you encounter online.
However, they are potential threats if you are a prominent or high net worth individual … or if you are a profitable business or high-profile organization. Investigative Group International, Inc., known as IGI, is famous in Washington, D.C. circles and beyond for its proprietary sources and methods used to identify the perpetrators of such campaigns … and then mitigate them.
Founded in 1984 by former Senate Watergate Committee counsel Terry F. Lenzner, IGI is a risk advisory and corporate investigations firm described by The Washington Post as “legendary for its ‘opposition research probes.’” IGI provides several services, but its Reputation Defense offensive is the most relevant for our clients.
With that in mind, we interviewed Arun G. Rao, President of IGI, on what you need to know if you or your organization become the focus of such attacks.
What types of IGI clients use your Reputation Defense services?
In the corporate sector, we serve companies involved in healthcare, entertainment, energy, finance, news, higher education, and other industries. In the personal sector, we assist high net worth individuals, prominent public figures (including elected officials and candidates for public office, as well as entertainers) and their family members.
What is most surprising to the clients you serve?
Individual clients often are surprised by the extent of sensitive and detailed personal information available about them online – especially people with children and close family members who are active on social media.
Corporate clients have been surprised, at times, to discover the true identities of the forces arrayed against them. Through our investigative work, we frequently establish that seemingly discrete and unrelated actions are, in fact, part of coordinated campaigns designed to undermine business initiatives.
Many clients come to us with misinformation or misunderstandings about the feasibility and strategic advisability of changing or removing internet content. Certain steps may improve privacy and promote safety, but other actions that clients might be contemplating may serve only to exacerbate the problem. We strive to ensure that our clients understand all of the risks and benefits of potential courses of action, so that they are properly informed about the range of options available.
Can you provide insight into the kind of issues you help your clients navigate?
Companies often find themselves simultaneously facing multiple serious crises at the same time – for example, Congressional hearings, pending government regulatory action, class action lawsuits, negative press coverage, public protests, or calls for a boycott.
In some cases, such events may stem from, or be driven and accelerated by, a coordinated disinformation campaign being waged against them. In those situations, we work to identify and profile the various actors arrayed against our client and to expose the sometimes-hidden connections and collusion among them.
More than once, a self-proclaimed “consumer watchdog group” has turned out to be a front for plaintiffs’ attorneys who are recruiting litigants. And purportedly “grassroots” activists or advocacy groups sometimes are funded by moneyed interests adverse to our client for their own reasons.
We also have encountered cases where complaints filed with law enforcement about a client’s business practices have been made in bad faith by agents of a competing business. Similarly, regulatory action or negative publicity might have been initiated by a dossier of negative or misleading information circulated by short-sellers trying to drive down our client’s share price.
For example, we assisted a company targeted by short-sellers who generated bad publicity —based upon false allegations — to drive down the client’s stock price. They masqueraded as journalists, collaborated with a competitor company, initiated false claims, and generally created havoc that mystified the company until they called us. Through our research, we were able to identify the bad actors and their coordinated disinformation campaign and take steps to expose their activities and place them on the defensive.
Entertainers, political figures, and high net worth individuals
Prominent political figures are often subject to false allegations – particularly during hard-fought campaigns. The candidate and their trusted staff members often know in advance from where such false claims are likely to arise. We can proactively prepare to combat such claims before a media crisis ensues. In a recent engagement, we were able to discreetly obtain verifiable facts demonstrating that certain claims circulating on fringe platforms were false. As a result of our research major mainstream media outlets – recognizing the falsity of the allegations in question – were dissuaded from amplifying them.
Aside from our political work, we also have provided related services to high net worth individuals. For example, the chief executive officer of a U.S. company retained IGI when a then-unknown individual impersonated the client online, in an effort to disparage the client. We were able to identify the culprit and assist with content removal. In another case, a member of a prominent family in the entertainment industry was targeted by conspiracy theorists who falsely claimed that the family member was participating in illegal activities. They attempted to publicize this “fake news” on various social media platforms. In addition to baselessly maligning the family member’s reputation, this posed a potential security risk – as we have seen in recent years, conspiracy theorists sometimes act not just from behind a computer screen, but, on occasion, in the physical world as well. We helped identify and locate the bad actors, remove personal identifying information and images from the internet, and coordinate residential security briefings to provide the client with peace of mind.
Summary
We conduct most of our reputation defense engagements in two broad phases: first, researching and gathering information, and second, responding to the threat.
In today’s climate, accusations against an individual or a company – even if wholly unfounded or merely alleged – may trigger a public relations crisis which, when amplified and multiplied on the internet, can escalate into an existential threat. Sometimes a company’s size alone, its role as an innovator or disruptor, or its bid to enter a new market can make it a target for the unscrupulous.
The sooner clients reach out to us, the better. With early assessment or intervention, we are able to remove the threat and minimize the risks and damage. Situations involving reputation defense can escalate quickly. Once that occurs, it can take significantly more time and resources to resolve.
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As President of IGI, Arun G. Rao directs due diligence and corporate internal investigations, and advises clients on crisis and risk management.
Previously he served as Chief of the Southern Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland. He was a Deputy Associate Counsel in the Office of the White House Counsel from 2012 to 2013. He joined the U.S. Department of Justice in 2007 as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Tennessee. Prior to that he was an Assistant District Attorney in the New York County District Attorney’s Office and an associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP in New York, New York. Rao graduated from the University of Virginia in 1998 and received his J.D. in 2001 from the New York University School of Law. He is an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center.
This is part of our continuing series of interviews with experts whose work relates to online reputation management.