----- Transcript of session follows ----- 554 cypherpunks@toad.com... Recipient names must be specified ----- Unsent message follows ----- Return-Path: <cypherpunks@toad.com> Received: by atdt.org (5.61+++/JLK-atdt) id AA06629; Thu, 24 Sep 92 19:49:05 -0400 Date: Thu, 24 Sep 92 19:49:05 -0400 From: cypherpunks@toad.com Message-Id: <9209242349.AA06629@atdt.org> To: cypherpunks@toad.com Subject: Information Brokers ____________________________________________________________________________ SYDNEY MORNING HERALD August 13 1992 HUGE TRADE IN PERSONAL FILES By MALCOLM BROWN Westpac, National Australia Bank, NRMA Insurance Ltd, Custom Credit and Citicorp are some of the big names in a damning report by the ICAC Assistant Commissioner, Mr Adrian Roden, QC, on the unauthorised release of confidential government information. Mr Roden found that there was a multi-million-dollar trade in such information which involved public servants, including police, and private inquiry agents. ""Information, from a variety of State and Commonwealth government sources and the private sector has been freely and regularly sold and exchanged for many years," he said. "NSW public officials have been heavily involved." Mr Roden heard 446 witnesses in public and private hearings over 168 days before compiling his 1,300-page report. Even so, he said, it was necessary to be selective; thousands of private and commercial inquiry agents had not examined. Mr Roden found that more than 250 people had participated in the illicit trade or had contributed to it. OOf these, 155 had engaged in corrupt conduct. A further 101 had engaged in conduct which allowed, encouraged or caused the occurrence of corrupt conduct. Many are NSW and Commonwealth public servants who sold information collected by the agencies where they work, including the Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA), police force, Telecom and Sydney County Council. The Attorney-General, Mr Hannaford, announced that the Director of Public Prosecutions had set up a task force to consider laying charges against more than 100 people named in the report. HHe said many of the public servants named could expect to lose their jobs and that the heads of all the government departments involved had been told to examine the report and take action against those involved. The Assistant Police Commissioner, Mr Col Cole, confirmed yesterday that five police officers had been suspended and announced that three task forces had been set up and computer security upgraded. Mr Hannaford foreshadowed the introduction of privacy legislation to make the unauthorised use of confidential information a criminal offence. The major banks said that they could not condone what their staff had done but said the staff had believed that they were acting in the best interests of their employers and the community. None of the banks was planning to sack staff found to be corrupt although several said the staff had been counselled or "educated". MMr Roden said the trade involved banks, insurance companies and other financial institutions which had provided "a ready market". The link was provided by private and commercial inquiry agents. With some banks, codes had been used to conceal the nature of the transactions. "As they have gone about their corrupt trade, commercial interest has prevailed over commercial ethics, greed ha~ prevailed over public duty; laws and regulations designed to protect confidentiality have been ignored," Mr Roden said. "Frequently the client, generally an insurance company, bank or other financial institution, ordered the information from the agent with a full appreciation of how it was to be obtained. ""The evidence disclosed that in the collection and recovery departments of a number of those institutions, it has long been standard practice to use confidential government information . . . as a means of locating debtors." Some finance and insurance companies had directed agents to keep all references to the trade off invoices and reports. "Some even directed that the agents falsely state the source of the information in their reports," Mr Roden said. "Some solicitors in private practice have sought and purchased confidential government information in circumstances in which they must have known that it could not have been properly obtained." Mr Kevin Rindfleish, an unlicensed private inquiry agent, had sold Department of Motor Transport/Roads and Traffic Authority and social security information "on a large scale". His principal client had been the ANZ Bank. AA private investigator, Mr Terence John Hancock, and his company, All Cities Investigations Pty Ltd, had sold confidential government information to the National Australia Bank and Westpac on a regular basis. Two employees of the NAB had used prior contacts to provide the bank with access to RTA, social security, Australia Post and immigration information. Between them, the employees also provided silent numbers and information on electricity consumers. The Advance Bank had "over a period of years" obtained information improperly released from the RTA, the Department of Social Security and the Department of Immigration. The practice was "known and approved at least to senior management level". New Zealand Insurance and Manufacturers Mutual had bought confidential government information from private investigators. NRMA Insurance Ltd and the Government Insurance Office were "found to have participated as freely in the illicit trade in confidential government information as their more commercially orientated competitors". "Evidence relating to NRMA Insurance Ltd established not only that it purchased confidential government information through private investigators, but also that investigators were required to obtain relevant government information by unauthorised means if they were to retain the company's work." EEsanda Finance Corporation Ltd had bought confidential information over at least 23 years. Custom Credit Corporation Ltd which had engaged in the illicit trade over "many years", had maintained false records to conceal how it obtained information. Alston de Zilwa, former underwriter and operations manager of Citicorp Ltd and later, Toyota Finance Australia Limited's credit operations manager, had established for each of the two companies a system for obtaining confidential information. The companies would seek information directly from employees of the DMA and RTA and pay a private inquiry agent, Mr Kevin Robinson, who would "launder" it, then invoice the companies for the corresponding sum. Mr Roden said that hundreds of thousands of dollars had changed hands in the trade uncovered. One agent had estimated that he had paid $40,000 to $50,000 a year for Social Security information alone. Another had said he received $100,000 over two years for government information. YYet another had, according to records, charged a bank $186,000 for "inquiry services" over a period of 18 months.