The UK could see kidnap and ransom cases, a business continuity conference heard. A report from our November 2003 magazine.
Kidnap – whether for money or by terrorists – is a real risk for corporate staff or ex pats. A consultant offered advice on how to combat the threat and how to negotiate if an employee is kidnapped.
Special Contingency Risks is a subsidiary of the Willis insurance group. It provides ransom money insurance cover; advice on kidnap and ransom prevention; and a response to incidents.
Terror and criminal groups in the UK could see kidnap of high net worth individuals as a way of gaining ready cash, suggested Paul Mills, a consultant with Special Contingency Risks, at a recent IIR conference on business continuity. He said: “We believe there could be incidents in Europe, even in England.” However he concentrated on the current threats – and the high-risk countries for kidnap are Mexico (mainly in Mexico City rather than the regions); Guatamala; Ecuador; above all Colombia; Venezula (exported from Colombia); Brazil (maybe opportunist crimes in say Sao Paolo or Rio, becoming more protracted); South Africa; and India and Pakistan. In the former Soviet Union, and the Philippines, kidnap may be for ideological reasons, rather than for money. Hence SCR offers travel management policies and risk assessments whether for individuals or companies. Mexican kidnappers may demand $100m, in cash, because they are professional criminals who know what to ask for and what they are going to get. A Mexico City kidnap may be relatively short, according to Paul Mills; two or three weeks. In Colombia, where around 2-3,000 kidnaps a year are reported – and there may be many more – armed groups may take longer to negotiate with.
A kidnap may resemble a fraud: someone ringing a mother saying ‘we have your daughter – give us $10,000 in one hour’. The frantic mother is unable to contact her daughter and meets the demand; in truth the daughter is in the cinema all the time. Or a kidnap can develop from a mugging; the thief going through the victim’s wallet sees a business card and realises that the person is worth more than $40 from an ATM machine using the victim’s credit card. The thief may ransack the victim’s house and ring his company to demand a ransom. This crime may be over in 48 hours – and thus may be over before there is time to send a response consultant from the UK or elsewhere (SCR has offices in Miami, Madrid, New York and London). A kidnap for ideals, Paul Mills believes, is more serious, because the kidnappers want to make a statement; he gave the example of the American journalist Daniel Perl, executed (on video) in Pakistan.
Yet companies are going into countries where they are not wanted, to take oil, or diamonds. Paul Mills suggested ‘hearts and minds’ methods to bring local people on your side – employing and educating locals, for example. Nor will a kidnap victim necessarily be a European manager of a multi-national’s overseas subsidiary. A Colombian national who is managing director of your Bogota office could become a victim. Why? He may not consider himself a target; yet he is high-profile and may appear in the media (stories of business success, and company literature, may include his name and photograph). A consultancy like SCR may offer lifestyle advice, because you are not vulnerable to kidnap in many places. Paul Mills gave the example of a traffic jam in Pall Mall; a kidnapper could not very well get out of his car, pick you from yours, and return to his vehicle to sit in the jam! Given that the manager or ex pat’s life revolves around club, house, office and school, Paul Mills pointed out that in downtown Bogota your have hundreds of options to change your route; time of travel; and vehicle, making it difficult for kidnappers to plan to intercept you at a particular time and place. Nor will a kidnapper seek their victim inside his club or office, because (unless they have inside information) the attackers will not be sure of the security measures they would face. Hence a kidnap is likely within 400m of the office or home. Here the victim has few options to vary the route; worse, he may be off-guard, feeling more secure as he nears home or work. Opportunist crime can happen at a traffic light (hence after dark, no-one in Caracas will stop at a red light, Paul Mills added). The victim’s car could be blocked at a junction, and the victim taken out of his vehicle, which is left in the street. While it was not a topic he pursused, Paul Mills pointed out a complicating factor – the police may be the first to find the vehicle, but what if they are corrupt, and may even be involved in the kidnapping?
At first, the victim’s company will hear of the empty car, and will only know for sure that their man is missing. Maybe he has lost his memory or gone on a bender. So the office should check mortuaries, hospitals and friends for the man’s whereabouts, then assume the worst and tell head office of the ‘incident’ (that is not necessarily a kidnap) – and prepare for ‘first contact’. When the first word comes from a kidnapper, it is important for the company to start negotiating from a position of control, rather than agreeing at once to a demand for (say) $10m – which may be far more than the insurance cover. When the kidnapper’s call comes – and it may come through to a secretary, another employee, or a wife – what to do? You should show concern for the victim: he could be diabetic, old and ailing, even shot and wounded. You should ask: how do we know he is alive, and how do we know you have him? That is, the kidnapper should put a question to the victim that only he can answer, like the name of a pet.Finally, when will the kidnapper call again, and how will we know it is you and not a hoaxer? (Bearing in mind that if the kidnap gets in the newspaper, any number of criminals will seek to demand money. Remember too that if the kidnap is public, criminals may be watching if you take millions of dollars out of the bank to pay the ransom – you don’t want it stolen!) Setting the time for thenext call – and giving the kidnapper a password – is important, Paul Mills added, so that the response staff do not have to wait days and days; equally, the call can come to the right person, and not (say) a caretaker. Lines of communication could become complicated, as the kidnapped person may have a remote base in the oil or diamond-extracting region; the country’s head office may be in the capital; and the corporate HQ is abroad. The kidnappers, most likely professionals, will be happy with this, and accept that they may be recorded. The incident response team will include a security manager, lawyer, human resources manager, anda ‘communicator’ – a local, who actually does the talking to the kidnappers. If the kidnappers realise that their victim comes with an insurance policy (and a response team from overseas), they may double their demand.
The communicator and kidnapper build up trust, even a rapport. The communicator can ask for more time to get $10m, claiming that a far-flung board needs to meet to agree to such a demand. Kidnappers will fear that the cash (or containers) when handed over may have tracking devices. Or the money may be counterfeit. Or the authorities may have arranged an ambush. Always remember, Paul Mills advised: the life of the victim is the main aim. The response consultant, then, can liaise with the press, the authorities and loved ones. During this traumatic time – you are after all speaking to save someone’s life – the victim’s colleagues and family need reassuring; they may need to change their tactics, to avoid another kidnap. They may feel aggrieved. You must be aware that a kidnap gang may take the money then ‘sell’ their victim to another gang, and the negotiation may have to start anew. If sub-contractors have been kidnapped, and they have various insurance policies, the response may be unco-ordinated – which could prove dangerous for the victims. The response team should prepare for payment – it is no good agreeing a deal on Sunday for the next morning and the banks are not open; you lose your chance. Yet millions of dollars take up space, maybe a whole room – if you withdraw cash early, you have to arrange to keep it safe, maybe for weeks. (The costs of the operation run from an interpreter to hotel accommodation, hire of cars and an office, and extra security measures.) Even after the ‘drop’ o f cash, it may be a week before you hear of the release of the victim, because the kidnappers will want to be sure that they have got away with it. The release may happen in another part of the country; the victim may be ill; he will need rehabilitation. He may want to leave the country; he may turn to drink. He may sue his employer. A poorly-managed kidnap, then, can lose a company a contract; other staff may feel it was handled badly and may leave this too-risky country.
From the floor came a question: aren’t consultancies merely leading to a proliferation of such kidnaps? Paul Mills admitted it was a difficult one. Yet who would not negotiate for the life of their loved one or a colleague? Who would work on a pipeline in Colombia or for an ammunition disposal company in Iraq if their company stated that it would not negotiate with kidnappers? Nor is it necessarily enough for a company to rely on their embassy’s evacuation plans, if a country has civil unrest, if their member of staff works in another city far from the embassy in the capital, and has never met the embassy.
