When the investor Carson Block arrived for an appointment at the Pierre hotel, in Manhattan, in 2017, he knew he was about to meet with an impostor. In the elegant Rotunda Room, surrounded by marble columns and a sky-blue mural, Block sat across from the dark-haired man who had extended the invitation. A security team that Block had brought with him fanned out around the hotel. After fielding a few pointed questions from the man, Block turned the conversation around. He raised his phone to film the encounter and said, "I'd like to know who you really are."
For more than a year, the mystery man, who spoke with a French accent, had presented himself in emails as a Paris-based reporter at The Wall Street Journal named William Horobin.
But Block had already made an approach to the real Horobin, who has an English accent, and learned that he hadn't sent those emails.
Based on the impostor's inquiries, Block had a strong suspicion about why he was there. Beginning in 2015, Block's hedge fund had published a series of highly critical research reports about Groupe Casino, an international retailer based in France. Block believed that Groupe Casino had sent this man on a spying mission to suss out his next moves.
Confronted on camera, the man denied it. He looked around the room and flashed an awkward smile that quickly fell from his face. Then he ran for the door, managing to evade Block's security team.
The man was soon identified as Jean-Charles Brisard, a prominent corporate security and intelligence consultant who had, in fact, regularly performed work for Groupe Casino, according to reporting by the actual Wall Street Journal. (The company has disputed Block's reports and denied any role in the episode at the Pierre. Brisard did not respond to a request for comment.)
This story is from the March 2023 edition of The Atlantic.
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This story is from the March 2023 edition of The Atlantic.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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