A British private investigator and security adviser whose company has just completed a four-year contract to protect the UK embassy in Tel Aviv has been linked to a series of more than 20 recurring telecommunications complaints. year, according to high court judgments.
A court ruling touching on the career history of Stuart Page – the 69-year founder of private security and information company Page Page – noted in May last year that the businessman “works in a world of research hidden where agents illegally obtain confidential information ”.
The judgment examines how Page, who appeared in the case as evidence, was linked to allegations of hockey stretching back to 1998, where the businessman is said to have found goods seized steal and pass them on to clients. The judge held that the allegations did not establish that Page had never authorized or supervised himself.
Page Group’s role in providing illegally obtained material to clients raises questions about the use of stolen personal information within Scottish civil court proceedings. UK, as well as the company being awarded a £ 1m contract by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) to one of the UK ‘s most sensitive embassies – a contract to watch in December after nearly four years.
The FCDO Procurement Partner’s Code of Conduct states: “Supply partners and their delivery chain partners must notify FCDO where there may be previous instances or claims of immoral behavior by an existing employee or existing or conflicts of interest or suspicious interests. . “
Page Group or the FCDO would not say if the company had raised the historic allegations to the government.
Lawyers for Page, whose companies have also been defending EU diplomats and have information responsibilities for Middle East regulators, told the Conservator: “No decisions have been made on slows down or misuses private information against our clients, during the 36-year life of Mr Page the field of private investigations. Our clients have not even been subject to any police or regulatory investigation into any crime. “
Group Page’s links to the hockey allegations were examined in a judgment last spring as part of a successful civil fraud lawsuit brought by the Ras Al Khaimah Investment Authority (RAKIA) Middle East sovereign wealth fund, which received $ 4.2m in May against former business partner Farhad Azima.
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After being involved as a private investigator by Ras Al Khaimah emirate governor Sheikh Saud, Page was dragged to proceedings in January 2020 as a RAKIA witness, when Azima ran a defense that the lawsuit against him was based. partly on “hacking… carried out by representatives of RAKIA”, which he said included Page Group.
While RAKIA won its fraud claim, the judgment stated that there was “no dispute that the RAKIA case against Mr Azima is based on evidence obtained as a result of Mr. Azima’s confidential email investigation”.
Page denies any involvement with the hack. He told the court he found the stolen materials on the internet after being warned by two informants. The deputy judge, Andrew Lenon QC, noted that Page’s explanation was “not true and the true facts of RAKIA’s discovery of the stolen material” have not been made public.
At the same time, Azima added to his evidence additional allegations about three other hockey attempts linked to Page, which Lenon said “makes it clear that Mr. Page works in a world of covert investigation in which representatives receive confidential information illegally and that Mr Page deals with those representatives ”.
The court’s ruling continued: “It would be a reasonable decision to withdraw from these incidents that Mr Page has the opportunity to hack e-mail-enabled representatives. But these other incidents do not prove that Mr. Page ever acted personally or authorized the unlawful receipt of confidential information. “
Page denies that he made any allegations in the allegations made in the Azima case and did not conclude the judgment that RAKIA was to blame for the hack. Azima will bring his case to the appellate court Tuesday, when he introduces new evidence as to how he claims his emails were stolen.
In addition to the three cases cited in the judgment, another hockey allegation is linked to Page which also appears in UK high court files, the Guardian has found. It relates to a case in 2007 in which one of Page’s businesses was reported to have been in a high court judgment for imparting illegally obtained personal information. Page did not comment when asked about the judgment by the Defendant.
The FCDO said: “This contract was awarded in 2017 following a rigorous evaluation in line with government guidelines. His contract expired in December 2020. “