Former CIA Spymaster Brings Geopolitical Intelligence to the Trade


The Arkin Group, a world danger consulting and intelligence agency, has launched TAG Intel, which can present non-partisan geopolitical intelligence to the wealth administration neighborhood. TAG Intel is led by Jack Devine, a 32-year veteran of the Central Intelligence Company, who goals to democratize the knowledge he’s been bringing to world company shoppers since 2000.

Devine created The Arkin Group in Could 2000, together with New York lawyer Stanley Arkin, who handed away in 2023. The agency focuses on worldwide disaster administration, strategic intelligence, investigative analysis and enterprise problem-solving.

Devine has fairly a fame within the intelligence neighborhood; he led the CIA’s Counternarcotics Middle when drug kingpin Pablo Escobar was taken down. He was answerable for this system that drove the Soviets out of Afghanistan within the late Nineteen Eighties. He was in Chile when Salvador Allende was overthrown in 1973. He was head of Iranian operations in the course of the Iran-Contra affair, which he’s been outspoken about saying was not a good suggestion.   

He mentioned the human sources and community he’s constructed over time differentiate his intelligence.

“All over the world, I’ve individuals which can be indigenous and are very educated about their international locations,” he mentioned. “They usually construct up a really spectacular, for my part, community.”

A 12 months and a half in the past, Devine began to fulfill with wealth and asset managers.

“Most of the asset managers particularly mentioned, ‘We have all the time checked out geopolitical issues around the globe. And we had fashions. However now these fashions aren’t working for us. It’s a far more advanced world. And despite the fact that AI offers numerous info that’s typical knowledge, it’s filled with what everyone else thinks,'” he mentioned.

There’s additionally numerous disinformation round geopolitical occasions, so these firms had been on the lookout for a supply of intelligence they may belief. Devine mentioned his content material doesn’t lean towards one celebration or one other, and it’s primarily based on info he’s receiving from sources on the bottom in these international locations.

TAG Intel will present this similar intelligence in a shortened model for wealth managers to cut back uncertainty round world crises and different occasions shoppers might ask about.  

This may embody a turnkey subscription-based content material service, The Intel Director’s Temporary, which begins at $10,000 a 12 months. That subscription features a weekly evaluation of geopolitical points and their impacts, a disaster report on fast-breaking world occasions and potential market influence, a quarterly report that gives deeper intelligence into industries and sectors, month-to-month stay Q&A periods with analysts, entry to Devine’s podcast, and in-person occasions with Devine for choose shoppers. For $299 a 12 months, advisors can get entry to the weekly reviews, and for $500 a 12 months, they will get the disaster reviews, in response to TAG Intel’s web site. 

“What I hear from asset managers or wealth is, ‘the world is advanced, and it is unsure, and we do not know the place to go to seek out the reply,’” Devine mentioned.

“They’ll move it on to their shoppers; they are often sensible. And it relieves numerous that stress about, ‘I’ve this individual’s cash, however is there going to be a struggle subsequent week?’ Or, ‘Is Putin going to truly use a nuclear weapon?’ And I’ve solutions primarily based on a fairly laborious assortment on all these points,” he mentioned.

For instance, his content material may discover the danger of a full-blown struggle between Hezbollah and Israel, given latest developments. He’ll speak about the place the struggle in Russia goes and the way that struggle could be advantageous. He’ll take a look at how secure issues are in Brazil and Argentina.

“All the pieces on this planet is interlocked right now,” he mentioned. “Should you’re taking a look at Russia, they have their hand within the Center East. Should you’re taking a look at Iran, they have their fingers in Russia and the North Koreans. In different phrases, every part’s interconnected. The cash’s interconnected.”

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