Chinese authorities just hauled away five employees of an American company and made them disappear. Things got “spooky” for U.S. corporation Mintz Group on Friday, March 24. Really spooky. As in CIA spooky. Reading between the lines, it appears the office was really a front for a “company” intelligence operation. If so, their covert operation has been compromised in the extreme.
Five employees snatched
The New York Post was first to report the missing employees. “Chinese authorities raided the office of U.S. corporate due diligence firm Mintz Group in Beijing and detained five local staff,” the company said. They list the Beatles as clients, among others.
The incident is “stoking concern among foreign companies.” It also makes conference attendants more than a little nervous with China getting ready to host an international economic forum.
The news of an office full of employees getting snatched comes as “Sino-US relations have spiraled downwards following months of diplomatic tensions.” It started with the balloon but when Xi Jinping recently met with Vladimir Putin in Moscow, they made it crystal clear that they plan to take over the world.
A top U.S. investigation firm has been #Raided in China. Due diligence company #MintzGroup found itself raided and its staff seized by Chinese officials without warning or legal notice. Moreover, all five staff members detained are Chinese nationals. https://t.co/fYIxZHK4xn pic.twitter.com/Qt4Hy3nmOo
— China in Focus – NTD (@ChinaInFocusNTD) March 25, 2023
Taiwan has been a major thorn in the Pooh Bear’s side and he’s getting ready to blast the irritation out with military force. Meanwhile the “not-President” of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen plans to drop by the U.S. a couple of times, coming and going. A meeting with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is on the agenda for the return trip. That cheeses off the Chinese even more.
Mintz Group emailed a statement to Reuters about their missing employees. “We can confirm that Chinese authorities have detained the five staff in Mintz Group’s Beijing office, all of them Chinese nationals, and have closed our operations there.”
They claim they don’t know why. What they did say is that the company is “ready to work with the Chinese authorities to resolve any misunderstanding that may have led to these events.” At this point, their main concern is the “safety and wellbeing of colleagues in China.”
No legal notice
“Mintz Group has not received any official legal notice regarding a case against the company and has requested that the authorities release its employees.” The Chinese foreign ministry is playing innocent. “spokeswoman Mao Ning said on Friday she was not aware of this case.”
Likewise, “the Beijing public security bureau did not respond to a request for comment.” Mintz Group only has one office in Mainland China and “specializes in background checking, fact gathering and internal investigations. Its wide-ranging clients include the National Football League, New York City and The Beatles.”
Off the record, “a source at the New York-headquartered firm earlier told Reuters on condition of anonymity that the company’s local legal counsel said the raid occurred on the afternoon of March 20, and that the employees were being held incommunicado somewhere outside of Beijing.”
Chinese Authorities Raid Office of U.S. Investigations Firm Mintz Group – WSJ https://t.co/sPx9r8C3rJ
— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) March 24, 2023
What they didn’t tell Reuters is that “Randal Phillips, a partner at the firm who heads its Asia operations but is based outside of China, is listed on its website as the Central Intelligence Agency’s former chief representative in China.” That might have something to do with the raid.
Mintz has 18 offices around the world and hundreds of employees. Even so, working in the “due diligence” field in China can be tricky even if you aren’t a front for the CIA. “Western due diligence companies have gotten into trouble with Chinese authorities before. British corporate investigator Peter Humphrey and his American wife Yu Yingzeng, who ran risk consultancy ChinaWhys, were detained in 2013 following work they did for British pharmaceuticals giant GSK.”
The Mintz Group incident sent a “remarkable signal” to one expert Reuters asked, “that Beijing wants foreign money and technology but that it won’t accept credible US firms conducting due diligence on Chinese partners or the business environment.” And that they don’t like spies.
