Homeworking makes spilling corporate secrets all the easier
The pandemic has transformed a persistent low-level problem into what could be a much larger one, by multiplying both the amount of inside information floating around and the opportunities for stealing it.
Back when I was a junior reporter, I watched my then newspaper’s White House correspondent compete head-to-head with her husband, who covered the US president for another publication. They had elaborate rules about not listening to each other’s phone conversations at home, not asking about meetings and not looking at each other’s papers. Surprisingly, it worked.
Other inherent family conflicts are resolved far less happily. In late 2018, the US Securities and Exchange Commission charged consultant Peter Cho with civil insider trading, saying he bought options in Virgin America after overhearing his then fiancée, a UBS banker, as she worked on a deal involving the airline from their shared apartment.
Financial Times
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