(Bloomberg) -- Traders at some of the world's biggest banks have allegedly been misled by cold callers dangling the prospect of jobs at the likes of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley in exchange for details about their salaries, the make-up of their teams and even their desk’s confidential profit and loss statements. But often the jobs don’t exist. Neither does the named caller. Even their supposed employer — firms like Omertion Group or AMO Search — aren’t real.
Instead, the calls have been made by staff at Odin Partners — a recruitment and market intelligence firm — according to documents seen by Bloomberg and 10 people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named given the sensitivity of the subject. Odin, which operates out of London, Singapore and Hong Kong, has placed more than 900 executives at international financial institutions, according to its website, making it one of the most prominent recruitment firms in the finance sector over the last decade.
It gets much of its information from legitimate interactions with traders including face-to-face meetings, according to people with direct knowledge of the situation. But it’s alleged that Odin staff have also obtained sensitive market intelligence from traders at some of the largest banks in the world using false identities. That information has been shared with unwitting clients, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.
Odin clients have included Wall Street giants such as Citigroup Inc. and Morgan Stanley as well as European banks UBS Group AG, Deutsche Bank AG, Barclays Plc and BNP Paribas SA. The banks declined to comment for this story.
As recently as last year, Odin staff contacted bankers using a process known inside the recruitment firm as “rusing,” according to documents seen by Bloomberg. The word, dating back to the 1500s, is defined as an action intended to mislead or deceive. The company uses the information gleaned from calls to unsuspecting bankers and traders as part of what it calls its “market mapping” of the key players trading in some of the world’s biggest asset classes from rates to currencies.
Data obtained through rusing was used as part of regular Odin presentations to clients offering detailed analysis of competitors’ trading desk performance, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.
Odin co-founders James Hext and Mounaver Thomas are also the sole directors of the market research company Vali Analytics, according to public filings. Vali sells aggregated data about markets to banks and the company's data has also been cited in the media, including by Bloomberg News.
This story is based on interviews with 18 people who have direct knowledge of the business practices of Odin and its executives, and its relationships with the world’s largest banks. All asked to remain anonymous due to concerns around their future employment and the sensitivity of the subject. Several former Odin staffers admitted taking part in rusing efforts and said they were instructed on how to gather such information on trading desks within banks by senior managers at the recruitment firm, including Hext.
Hext and Thomas declined repeated requests for an on-the-record response to this story. Tom Bury, a director of Odin Partners Asia Ltd., didn’t respond to multiple emails and messages seeking comment.
In a letter dated Sept. 13, Quastels, a law firm representing Odin, Vali, Hext and Thomas, described the allegations as “false.” Following further questions they issued a short statement on Oct. 9. “Odin Partners is currently in dispute with those they believe are responsible for the allegations and has been advised not to engage publicly on the issues raised by Bloomberg at this time. As far as Vali is concerned, its business is entirely separate and distinct from that of Odin.”
Bloomberg News has seen no evidence that Vali Analytics used data obtained through rusing.
As recently as 2022, Hext encouraged members of Odin staff to ruse, according to people familiar with the matter and written communications seen by Bloomberg. The staff would keep detailed notes of their calls, jotting down adopted fake names for themselves and Odin, as well as the details they had gathered, according to several people involved. Traders and sales staff at firms including Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Nomura Holdings Inc., BNP and Morgan Stanley were allegedly targeted. Representatives for those banks declined to comment.
As well as scooping up profit and loss data for individual desks and traders’ salaries, the documents show that rusers recorded their targets’ education and other personal information. On one occasion, a suspicious trader asked for extensive information about the fake company name and its mandate, and was hesitant to discuss himself though he was interested in the purported job at Morgan Stanley that was said to be on offer, according to the documents seen by Bloomberg.
A trader named in Odin’s records for 2022 told Bloomberg News he didn’t remember being called, but he added that some of the annual P&L data that Odin stored on him was correct, along with information about his professional relationship with a colleague. Another trader whose name appeared in the documents said he had received more than 1,000 phone calls from headhunters in recent years, and couldn’t remember this particular one in 2023.
Cold callers are gambling that most traders will not ask too many questions when offered salary or workplace information of benefit to them. Bankers said routine exchanges with headhunters can be useful when looking for another job in a sector with a reputation for gossip and where information can be a valuable currency.
Yet many are skeptical about the value of engaging with random approaches. Headhunters often phone when bonuses are paid in order to get information and stay in touch through the year about P&L, said a senior rates trader in London, who added that it would be rare to discuss salary unless you're close to receiving an offer.
Lucrative Work
When Wall Street banks, and their counterparts in Asia and Europe, are looking to hire a top trader, they often rely on a small cadre of recruitment firms for the task. These firms operate a delicate business that requires detailed knowledge of existing banker salaries as well as the individual performance on a trading desk, two of the most closely guarded secrets in banking.
It can be lucrative work. A successful trader at a big-name firm can negotiate a compensation package worth millions. Placement fees for headhunters can be around 25% of the first year’s total compensation, but tend to be capped at somewhere around £100,000 ($130,000).
Odin is known as one of the most active players in the industry. The company employs around 25 people with nine in London, 10 in Hong Kong and four in Singapore, according to its website. Company filings show it paid dividends of about £2.2 million in 2023.
Former Odin staff who spoke to Bloomberg painted a picture of a systematic effort to gain information by deliberately misleading traders. One person said they felt guilty about what they had done when traders would go away and discuss the non-existent positions with their partners or families and begin to make plans based on a fake job offer. Some Odin staff, who say they were instructed to carry out rusing, refused to take part. Another said they quit over the use of the practice. One former member of staff said it was up to the discretion of individual managers whether you had to ruse or not.
According to one former Odin employee, rusing was sold to them as a “necessary evil.” They would be encouraged to approach people who had spoken to Odin before, using a false name and company details but lacing the conversation with a “remix of some true information” gleaned from earlier discussions and a bit of flattery about their return on equity, the former employee said. They would then tell the person that they had a relationship with a leading bank and that a named director was “keen on seeing what the talent pool is like for fixed-income” or other sectors of the finance market.
“I’m not sure I ever called using my real name, I don’t recall ever doing it, most times I used false names,” said a former junior Odin employee who asked not to be identified. “I phoned a candidate, they got really interested and were asking questions. They said ‘I think it’s a really interesting opportunity, I want to discuss with my partner, can we talk later in the week?’” The former Odin employee said that they felt guilty about misleading the person and that if asked to do it again they would refuse, but at the time felt vulnerable as a junior member of staff.
Odin’s website says the company places a premium on the quality of data it provides about the market and the candidates it puts forward for consideration by client banks.
“As a global team, we gather every scrap of information from every territory,” Thomas, also Odin’s managing director, was quoted as saying on its website. “We share, distill and analyze it, and everything of value is immediately passed on to our individual clients.”
‘Stream’ of Intelligence
Rusing has happened at other headhunting companies, according to people familiar with the sector. Some experts suggest the practice could infringe data privacy regulations or even fall foul of fraud legislation.
Nick Vamos, partner and head of the business crime unit at law firm Peters & Peters in London, said it is not an offense in itself under the Fraud Act 2006 to dishonestly obtain confidential information. However, if recruiters are clearly intending to use the information for financial gain — for example by selling it to paying clients, increasing commissions or boosting the profits of the company more generally — then that conduct could rise to the level of fraud by false representation, he added.
Other recruitment tactics have jeopardized Odin’s standing with at least one of its biggest clients, the Japanese investment bank Nomura.
Nomura terminated its relationship with Odin in early 2022 after a breakdown in trust and growing suspicion that the recruiter had been poaching staff despite being subject to a non-solicitation agreement, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named given the sensitivity of the subject.
Nomura declined to comment. Odin's lawyers didn't address the relationship with Nomura when asked about it.
“Our relationships do not begin and end with a search assignment,” Odin says of its general practices on its website. “We provide a continuous stream of market intelligence that keeps clients ahead of the game. It’s a partnership of mutual goals.”
--With assistance from Cathy Chan and Donal Griffin.
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.