Evil has been afoot in the banking world in Hong Kong. An executive moved from First Pacific Bank to a financial company earlier this year - and allegedly took with her a pile of photocopied confidential information from the bank.
She is accused of taking operations manuals, books of procedure, details of lending policies, and even documents about advertising strategies.
This did not go undetected. An anonymous informant wrote a letter giving all the details of the 'industrial espionage' to Business Post, Target and her new employer.
The letter writer lent weight to his or her evidence by enclosing further copies of all the duplicated documents.
In other words, Anonymous was annoyed about A spilling secrets to B, and decided to take action by spilling the same secrets much, much further. I phoned First Pacific Bank, and a spokeswoman said they did not want to comment, as the incident was under investigation.
The next step, for this reporter, seems obvious enough. Start my own bank. Now give us a minute to read all these manuals . . . Hongkong Bank is urging customers to invest in Lunar New Year medal collections.
The headline on the leaflet going out to customers says: 'The Hong Kong Lunar New Year and Royal Visit Gold Proof Medal Series - a proven investment year after year.' The text: 'When the Year of the Dragon Crown-size Gold Proof Medals were first issued, they were sold at HK$13,800. Today, they are valued at HK$20,080 - an increase of more than 45 per cent!' Hang on a minute. Recipient Charles Marshall reached for his calculator and a calendar.