An article in POLITICO this morning is an interesting tale. Apparently, the CIA is offering their operatives to the private sector.  The work they perform is not on “government time”, but as a side gig.   When I first saw this story, I thought it would be agents consulting along the lines of  corporate physical security or cybersecurity.   In fact, they’re working for Wall Street firms.

The CIA defends the practice as a type of talent retention program, where highly trained CIA officers can supplement their government salary without leaving the agency for the private sector, where they stand to earn 2x to 3x their current salary. POLITICO describes the work of one such firm used by Wall Street firms.

“The firm is called Business Intelligence Advisors, and it is based in Boston. BIA was founded and is staffed by a number of retired CIA officers, and it specializes in the arcane field of “deception detection.”

The tactics that BIA officials such as these teach hedge fund clients are based in a program it calls “Tactical Behavior Assessment” which focuses on the verbal and nonverbal cues that people convey when they aren’t telling the truth.

Often, BIA deploys its CIA-trained operatives to analyze quarterly corporate-earnings calls…and BIA uses them to figure out if the company may not be disclosing the truth…The information they gleaned from this phone call could be worth millions of dollars.”

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