Our client’s company received an anonymous tip suggesting that the manager of one of its main branches had a personal relationship with a key competitor in the region, which could affect the company’s operations by sabotaging its activities.
The situation was complex because there was a persistent perception in the media space that this manager and the competitor’s representative were in fierce conflict. They regularly criticised each other in public and exchanged biting remarks, which suggested that any friendly relationship between them was out of the question. It seemed almost impossible to gather evidence of their relationship, especially without operational measures such as surveillance. Nevertheless, the client was keen to gather all relevant information in the case using OSINT methods.
Conflict for show
Our work began with an in-depth analysis of media reports on the case. Crucial to understanding the situation was gathering information about local relationships and connections between important people in the community. As a result of the analysis, it became clear that there was indeed a deep conflict between the branch manager and the president of a competing company. In the media and public statements, both portrayed themselves as fierce opponents, exchanging harsh accusations and criticism.
What came as a surprise, however, was the discovery that, despite their open conflict, the two were friends on the social networking platform Facebook. This was particularly paradoxical, given that they both regularly used this platform to publicly express their negative opinions about the other. They even created special groups in which they exchanged accusations and critical comments.
Such a paradox – intense public hostility on the one hand, and on the other hand an acquaintance on a social media platform that they used to attack each other – was a significant element in the subsequent investigation and raised many questions about the true relationship between them.
Friendship in the shadow of conflict
As a next step, we decided to focus on analysing the professional and media activities of the manager’s wife. It turned out that she was also an active person in the local community and had held positions in the municipal structures in the past. Her Facebook profile provided us with interesting information that shed new light on the case.
We noticed that numerous posts with photos of the manager’s wife were being ‘liked’ by the wife of the CEO of a competing company. What’s more, most of these reactions were ‘hearts’ – a type of like which, unlike other reactions, is often used by people with whom we have a closer relationship. The number of such ‘hearts’ under the photos of the manager’s wife was relatively high, and her profile thus gained additional context in the case.
Similarly, we analysed the profile of the competitor’s CEO’s wife. Here, the situation was even clearer – almost all the photos on her profile were ‘liked’ by the manager’s wife, who also left flattering comments under some photos in a friendly tone.
This picture of the relationship between the wives of the two conflicted men was extremely surprising to us. In the context of the client’s information about the ongoing conflict, which also rubbed shoulders with legal proceedings, the maintenance of such a close relationship by the wives of both parties on social media seemed unusual and raised serious doubts about the true relationship between their husbands.
Career links
Analysing further the links between these marriages, we came across the intersection of the career paths of the manager and the wife of the president of the competition. The manager, like his wife, had held a position in the municipal entity for some time in the past. The wife of the president of the competition worked in this unit at exactly the same time, and, more interestingly, she started working there shortly after the manager became the head of this unit. This indicated that the possible link between the marriages stretches from the past until now.
Political background to the conflict
An additional important thread that caught our attention was the political issue. The client highlighted that there was a clear division of people in the local structure according to political affiliation. The branch manager publicly presented views opposite to those of his competitors, which became a source of much contention and controversy in the local media. Both men often used this division as a sticking point in their criticisms of their opponent.
However, in the course of the analysis, we discovered that the manager had been financially supporting a party that was opposed to his own publicly stated views for several years until last year. In practice, this meant that he supported a party with which his rival was closely associated.
Final conclusions of the OSINT analysis
After combining all the information gathered, it became clear that the conflict between the manager and the competition was not as clear-cut as it had previously seemed. The client carefully analysed the decisions made by the manager and found that they were indeed indicative of sabotage of the activities of the company the manager led. Thanks to these findings, the client understood the source of the problems, which were occurring only in this branch, and their impact on the financial situation of the company in this region.
Author: Patrycja Kruczkowska
*Client data has been anonymised prior to publication.
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