International Journal on Criminology Volume 2, Number 1, Spring 2014 | Page 80

Crime and Business
Eric Delbecque 1
International Journal on Criminology - Volume 2 Issue 1 - Spring 2014
Does Economic Warfare Exist?
Criminal organizations threaten businesses
just as much as they threaten
states and citizens; but there is
also such a thing as “economic warfare,”
which manifests another face of crime, another
type of threat to economic interests.
The term may be polemical and somewhat
alarming, but the reality it refers to is indisputable.
Today’s businesses compete hard
to capture markets that are increasingly
coveted by a plethora of competitors. This
has become particularly evident as China,
Brazil, and India unleash their enterprises
in “Western” markets. And states are also
a part of this gigantic commercial competition.
In fact, the strategic challenges of
tomorrow are predominantly economic.
None of the other subjects of confrontation
have disappeared, but they rank as secondary
priorities in the global arena.
So what concretely lies behind the
term “economic warfare?” Many things:
industrial espionage, intrusions into or
straightforward burglary of research laboratories,
the poaching of senior executives
(as a form of “hostile recruitment”), attacks
on public image, the undermining of leaders,
and so forth. But in a word: crime. Its
motives certainly vary in form, but they all
converge in the expectation of turning a
profit.
The manipulation of information, in
particular, goes from strength to strength.
An interesting example is that of Whitehaven
Coal. In January 2013, a certain association,
judging their business activities
to be too polluting, used the headed paper
of a large bank to propagate false information
and thus to bring down the stock value
of the company. 2 For no apparent reason,
the share price recorded a sudden brutal
drop of around 10%. Following a suspension
of trading, an investigation uncovered
the publication of a false memo purportedly
from the fourth largest Australian bank,
ANZ.
The document appeared to announce
the discontinuation of financing
facilities (of around a billion euros) for the
Maules Creek open-cast mine, one of the
largest on the planet (and a crucial site for
Whitehaven Coal). The fake memo emphasized
“the risks associated with the mine’s
reputation and with analysis of its profitability,
in the current highly volatile climate
of the coal export market.” 3 The markets,
rather feverishly, did not hesitate to
react. Once the subterfuge was unmasked,
activists from the Frontline Action Group
(an environmental association opposed to
the mine, which they claimed was dangerous
to the environment) admitted to being
the true authors of the memo.
Hostile takeovers of businesses also
stand out as being among the most sophisticated
and dangerous threats of the moment.
1
Head of the department of economic security of the INHESJ (Institut National des Hautes Études de la Sécurité
et de la Justice [National Institute for Advanced Studies in Security and Law]).
2
See Charles Gautier, “Des Écolos en lutte contre une mine se font passer pour des banquiers,” Le Figaro,
January 8, 2013.
3
Translator’s note: Quotation back-translated from the French-language version of this article.
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