Kroll Inc.

Kroll is a global risk consulting company headquartered in New York. Since its founding in 1972 by Jules B. Kroll, the company has expanded beyond private investigation and security services into all areas of corporate risk mitigation including background screening, business intelligence, forensic accounting, electronic discovery, and data recovery, among others. It was a subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan Companies until August 2010 when it was acquired by Altegrity, Inc., principally owned by Providence Equity Partners.

History

In 2002, Kroll acquired Kelly McCann's firm Crucible Security Services. McCann became a Senior Vice President of Kroll's security services and training departments.

Kroll was itself acquired by professional services firm Marsh & McLennan Companies in July 2004. Lead on the Marsh side as chairman and CEO was Jeffrey W. Greenberg, the son of American International Group (AIG) CEO Maurice R. Greenberg, but he had to resign from his posts at Marsh on October 25, 2004 in favour of Michael G. Cherkasky, who was formerly with Kroll.

In March of 2004, Kroll hired co-founder of Defence Systems Limited, Alastair Morrison, to lead a new subsidiary, Kroll Security International Inc., based out of Kroll's Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) regional headquarters in London. They will assume responsibility for overseeing the Iraq assignments, global kidnap for ransom, as well as the security services work conducted in Latin America and the Asia-Pacific. [1]

Kroll is a member of the Private Security Company Association of Iraq.

Notable Cases

Spying

In October 2004, police raided the Brazil offices of Kroll Inc. Federal police stated the raids were in connection with Kroll's investigation of dairy firm Parmalat. Kroll suggested the raids were related to its investigation into Telecom Italia on behalf of its client Brasil Telecom. Telecom Italia offices in Brazil and Italy were raided as well and some members of its Tiger Team were arrested for international espionage to highlight the counterintelligence performed against Kroll. Previously, Brazilian daily Folha de S. Paulo claimed Kroll spied on Presidential adviser Luiz Gushiken, a claim denied by the firm.

The Heroin Trail case

In 1987, in the prominent First Amendment case over The Heroin Trail stories in New York Newsday, attorney Floyd Abrams enlisted Kroll's help to find an eyewitness:

"But was it conceivable that we could come up with an eyewitness who could be of help? I called Jules Kroll, the CEO of Kroll Associates, the nation's most acclaimed investigative firm, to ask him if he could inquire, through the extensive range of former law enforcement officials employed by him, whether Karaduman was known to be a drug trafficker in Istanbul."

Kroll delivered: two weeks into the trial the firm produced Faraculah Arras, who was prepared to testify he was involved in one of Karaduman's drug deals. "I was stunned," recalled Abrams.

Abrams used Kroll again in 1998 to investigate claims by CNN's Newstand documentary that sarin nerve gas had been used in Vietnam in 1970 as part of Operation Tailwind.

WTC & Sears Tower security

Kroll were responsible for revamping security at the World Trade Center after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. They also took on responsibility for security at Chicago's Sears Tower following the September 11, 2001 attacks.

The Strange Death of Richard Chang

Richard Chang was a senior Risk Business analyst with Abbey National employed in their City of London HQ. He was a happily married family man with 2 teenage children when he died tragically on 13th July 2004 in a fall from a 5th Floor window of the Abbey National HQ Building.

Kroll had been instructed by Abbey National to discover the author(s) of an anonymous document that had been distributed to Senior Directors of the company alleging financial corruption, fraud and sexual impropriety. The document related to appointments, made by Abbey management, of external consultants the Buttonwood Tree Consultants. During the course of the Kroll investigation, Richard was subjected to interrogations by Kroll staff and secretly taped with legal representative present. During a 2.5 hour interrogation session, Richard is said to have requested a comfort break during which he jumped to his death.

The tape of the interrogation session was not given to the police until 3 weeks after the death and Richard's family believe it may have been edited in the meantime. The coroner did not allow it to be played at the inquest. The family have major issues with the City of London police investigation, the post-mortem examination and the Coroners inquest.

The Lead Kroll investigator on the Abbey National investigation was Howard Jones, a former Metropolitan Police detective superintendent. The pathologist who carried out the post-mortem was Dr Freddie Patel who did not attend the inquest.

Other products - Identity Theft Shield

Kroll entered into a joint marketing agreement with legal service plan provider Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. in 2003, to distribute an identity theft product to consumers, called the Identity Theft Shield, the first time Kroll offered a service to individuals. As of June 30, 2006, Kroll had over 560,000 customers, according to Pre-Paid Legal's quarterly report. In addition to the Pre-Paid Legal subscribers, Kroll's Identity Theft Shield serves about 500,000 other consumers.

Similar Companies

• Control Risks Group UK
• Crisis Control Group, LLC USA
• The Ackerman Group USA

Resources

• Kroll Inc - Company Website
• Kroll Ontrack, Kroll's electronic discovery, computer forensics, and ESI consulting subsidiary
• Ontrack Data Recovery, Kroll's data recovery services and software unit
• Fraud Solutions, Kroll's identity theft and data breach solutions unit
• Brazil Raids Kroll Offices in Spy Probe 10.27.2004, AP