We reported back in September how executives in Michelle Mone’s bra company, Ultimo brand lingerie, had bugged the office of another executive, Scott Kilday. Along with the drama of marital breakup and corporate hijinx, some other results of that episode are now coming to light.  After the bugged Kilday resigned, Hugh McGinley, who worked under him, claims the resulting stress and a workload increase was so intense that he was forced to quit and is now demanding compensation for a loss of earnings. 

from an article in the Scottish Daily Record of 2/14/2014:

BRA tycoon Michelle Mone became a very demanding boss as her firm ran into “serious difficulties” during her marriage split, an ex-employee claimed yesterday.

Accountant Hugh McGinley, 52, who is suing MJM International for £20,000 for constructive dismissal, told a tribunal in Glasgow he was forced out of his job of […]

Garda Ombudsman HQ bugged, The Irish Mirror

Justice Minister Alan Shatter had been asked to respond to reports that the Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission was under surveillance

It was revealed today that the Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) offices on Abbey Street in Dublin was under surveillance by “government-level technology”.

And Mr Shatter has asked GSOC for a report on the decision to hire a British security company to investigate a possible breach last year.

A spokesman for the justice minister said: “Minister Shatter has requested a report from the Ombudsman and will not be making a comment until he has received and considered that.”

The British consultants found a speaker phone on the upper floor of the GSOC building was bugged. The room was regularly used to hold case conferences on sensitive investigations.

Reports at the weekend suggested that a test of the line confirmed the phone was being used to eavesdrop […]

WASHINGTON — After months of taking grief for snooping on foreign leaders, the Obama administration found itself on the other side on Thursday after a private telephone call between two American diplomats appeared on the Internet in a breach that the White House tied to Russia.

In the recording, an assistant secretary of state and the ambassador to Ukraine are heard talking about the political crisis in Kiev, their views of how it might be resolved, their assessments of the various opposition leaders and their frustrations with their European counterparts. At one point, the assistant secretary uses an expletive in a reference to the European Union.

The conversation opened a window into the American handling of the crisis and could easily inflame passions in Kiev, Brussels and Moscow, where the role of the United States has been controversial. The […]

Robert Hoffman had a risky perspective on life-  “I plan to have fun with this until someone does kill me or I have enough money to disappear.” Hoffman wrote in his diary. [He] also said he didn’t trust his handler. “My thought that Vladimir is an idiot, or new at this espionage thing, is growing well on the mound of evidence he provides me. Or this whole thing could be a setup against me and they suck at it.”  It was a set up, by the FBI, and he was caught. 

Robert Hoffman: The spy who struck out –By Scott Daugherty, The Virginian-Pilot, 

Robert Patrick Hoffman II was still half-asleep when he heard the knock. He opened the door of his Virginia Beach home to find a beautiful woman with “Subtle, Eastern European features.” She said her name was Olga. She was wearing a low-cut turquoise blouse, black skirt and […]