The worse the U.S. economy fares and the bigger the income inequality gap grows, the better business seems to get for Paul Viollis and Douglas Kane. Their New York City-based company, Risk Control Strategies, has doubled its revenues this year by providing security services to the affluent.
That idea came years before the collapse of Wall Street, the recession and Occupy Wall Street. Viollis acknowledges the indelicacy of their serendipitous success, and explains why he's proud of their mission to protect the 1 percent.
How did Occupy Wall Street and the economy in general benefit your business?
People generally think, "I'm okay, I live under the radar," and don't recognize risk, but whenever you see a major event, that's when our business spikes. Forensically, back in the fourth quarter of 2008, we had the implosion of Wall Street, the AIG collapse, the whole Paulson thing with the banks -- that's really where we had the growth spurt, and we've been in critical mass since.
What types of clients do you serve?
Senior level, C suite execs and entrepreneurs, people who have had significant liquidity events and are now retired investors, and on the institutional side, single and multi-family offices and the advisor community.
Do you get a sense from these clients that there is a growing culture of fear?
No question. Several clients have opted to secure an alternative residence outside the country. Two have actually bought islands. There's an apprehension right now among the high net-worth community as to are we really safe from terrorism, and where are we economically, as in, are we going to become the next Greece or Italy? There's a huge vote of no confidence among our clients as far as where the country is headed.
Do you attribute the fact that you almost doubled revenue this year to Occupy Wall Street?
Yes. People want to make sure they're preemptively addressing certain risks. It doesn't help when you have clients getting emails from strangers saying, "I know you have lunch at the Starbucks on Williams and John," or "That's a nice house you have in Greenwich." That kind of spooks you a little bit.
Do you deal with a lot of paranoia from clients?
Part of the job is to hand-hold the client. I spend a lot of time visiting with clients all over the country. If someone is anxious, it helps to look someone in the face rather than communicating over email. And education is key.
What's the oddest request you've gotten from a client?
The past three to four months, we've been inundated with calls from folks who want to get together an Armaggedon plan -- in the event of a nuclear attack, terrorist attack, biological test, wanting to get off, say, the island [of Manhattan] to a safe house. That's not going to happen. What will happen is New York will be shut down.
What type of requests do you more commonly deal with?
The main ones are detail background investigations -- not background checks -- on house staff. Another growth spurt has been our technical surveillance counter measure practice, because of the desire of companies such as hedge funds to verify that eavesdropping devices are not in their offices. Our cyber security practice has grown for building small servers and putting them in people's homes so they can communicate safely over the Internet.
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