Principal Advisor
The final recourse.
Blackmail and threats · Crises behind the scenes · High stakes negotiations
Your security team, lawyers and advisers have done what they could. The problem is still there. Time is running out, peace of mind is gone, you are sleeping less and the strain is starting to reach your inner circle.
Brief merico@briedjal.com · or message me on Signal
Situations
That is how most calls begin. Until recently they knew exactly what to do. Now they no longer do.
Blackmail, with rumours or damaging stories as leverage. Threats, a kidnapping, a leak. I approach a kidnapping as a business conflict. The other side wants money and wants a transaction. What they give back is exactly what they use as leverage. That calls for negotiation, not drama. Measures are in place, yet nothing changes and every day counts.
A rift in the family, someone close who can no longer be trusted, a secret that must not come out. No one outside sees that I am involved.
The talks have started and the other side holds the advantage. Behavioural profiling shows me what drives them, where the pressure lies and what they will say that can later be used against them. I stay out of sight, so the result is yours.
Most due diligence looks only at the downside. I analyse the same information for the upside. If the risk can be managed, you can proceed where others walk away.
An entrepreneur came into view because of his public visibility. A party got in touch claiming money was still owed. He asked for the contract. In that world nothing goes on paper and proof means something else. Two worlds that touch nowhere. That answer threw him. When he did not pay, photographs of his child at school arrived, with the same demand.
I took over the communication, together with him and his family. We mapped where it came from and agreed a course of action together.
Within eleven days it was resolved.
How it was resolved is not written here. That is why they came to me.
A business with high value on site received a threat. Arson, unless a sum was transferred. The police were already involved and doing their work.
I sat down beside the client. I speak the language of the police. I heard what they had done and what they were going to do and could advise them in my client’s interest. At the same time I could tell the client exactly what would happen and how the process would unfold.
I work between parties who each have their own position. The police, the lawyer, the family, the business. I keep them together and facing the same way, without anyone feeling passed over. That sounds like a side issue. It is the difference between a process that runs and a process that stalls.
That is how light enters a dark process. A path becomes visible. At first it is narrow and you steer by the minute, then by the hour, then by the half day. The more control, the further ahead you can plan. That brings calm. Calm is what someone needs to make good decisions.
I advised on the additional measures and put them in the right hands. Together with the police and the client we established when the threat had been removed.
A little over three weeks, then back to how things were, with lessons that remain.
My role
You send one message. From that moment everything runs through me.
I read the situation and the people in it. Who is doing what, why and what the next move will be. That is where it starts, because without that picture you deploy the wrong capability.
I decide what is needed and who comes in. Over 28 years I have built my network from people I have seen work myself, not from a list of suppliers.
I set their brief, I monitor what they deliver and I translate what they report into the decision you need to take. You deal with me, not with five parties.
The people you trust sit at the table: your lawyer, those closest to you, your own advisers. They are needed when a decision has to be taken that goes against instinct. A decision like that only holds if they stand behind it.
If the police are involved, I am at your side. I explain what the police are doing and how the process is best run. Where it serves your interest I give the police feedback.
In corporate intelligence and investigative assignments we define the question together. Research only delivers when the question is right.
What clients tell me they notice first is calm. In one of the darkest periods of their lives, someone is in charge again, and tells them the truth.
Every line runs through me. The principal deals with one person, not ten.
In most cases a name is at stake. I work to prevent the damage, not to limit it afterwards.
Families, holdings, competing interests. I map who wants what, who knows what and who really decides.
What works under this kind of pressure is often not what feels right. For a moment it may seem to get worse. I explain every step, so you know why before you act.
Three phases
When conventional means fall short, I work behind the scenes. First in the crisis, then on what caused it.
Normal
Regular measures. There are good firms for that.
It goes wrong
Conventional measures fall short and often make it worse.
Contain
Stop the damage.
Control
Rearrange the playing field.
Elevate
Remove the cause.
After
Back in control. You carry on without me.
01
First we stop the damage. Then we talk about solutions.
One line of communication, no big decisions.
02
The field rearranged so it cannot flare up again.
Every party mapped, every conversation prepared.
03
The cause removed, so it does not come back.
New systems in place and the people around you prepared. Then you carry on without me.
Every engagement has a clear beginning and a clear end. A phase ends when agreed criteria are met, not when it feels right. If a new threat appears, I go straight back to Contain.
Fees are set per phase. Each phase has a fixed maximum, agreed before it starts.
Background
For ten years, an operation almost every working day. In private practice since 2009.
Close protection and intelligence: experience gained in government service.
I learned to watch people who did not know they were being watched. First to understand behaviour. Then to predict what someone would do next.
What someone does not say is visible. Posture, timing, where the eyes go. From that comes a profile.
At the table I test that profile. Every sentence spoken either fits what I see or it does not. That quickly brings to the surface who is really sitting there, what they want and where the vulnerability lies.
That is where the balance of power shifts. Unnoticed. Before any negotiation has begun.
A firm wanted to win a client with a turnover of more than a billion. A conversation like that takes place in a boardroom. The owner was known to be unreachable. Impossible to persuade, by anyone.
I studied the public appearances. Where the gaze went, what was said and how it was said, where it chafed. From that the foundation surfaced. Where the strength lay, where recognition was sought, where something could be added and where the vulnerability lay.
With that I prepared the negotiators. Not for what they wanted to say, but for what would happen on the other side of the table. What to do and above all what not to do. I said the meeting would probably not take place on the 36th floor overlooking the city, but somewhere without any status at all. My advice was not to wear a suit.
It turned out to be the crèche. On children’s chairs, opposite someone in an old jumper.
Of three parties in the race, they came out best. The owner gave as the reason how well they handled the unexpected. For them nothing had been unexpected. They were the only ones who had prepared for it. They now serve that corporation, worth hundreds of thousands of euros in revenue.
Years in environments where you learn to read what people do not say, and to act before others see it.
In the Netherlands I am a familiar voice in the national media and a speaker on security and crisis management. What happens inside the work stays there.
Dutch and English, fluent. Spanish, intermediate.
For those passing on a name
Often it is a friend who says, ‘You need to call him.’
I work alongside your lawyer, family officer or private banker, not in their place.
Names of clients and referrers appear nowhere. Not on this site, not in the media, not in a conversation with anyone else.
The first question I ask is whether you have already tried the conventional routes. If not, this is not the moment and I will refer you on.
Contact
Briefly describe what is going on, without names if you prefer. I read every message myself. You will hear from me the same day.
Brief merico@briedjal.com · What you share stays here.
The first conversation carries a fixed fee, credited against any engagement.
Prefer to start with an NDA? Download the mutual NDA, sign it and send it with your message. I countersign the same day.
Until we speak: do not pay, do not reply, do not delete anything. Keep every message as it arrived.
If your email or phone may be compromised, write from a device the other side cannot know.
Signal: RA2010RA.69
I use Signal because it is the most secure way to reach me. No Signal? Send an email with a neutral subject line.
If you are in immediate danger, call the emergency services first.
