Ghost turns his focus to Jules Kroll, the man once dubbed the “CIA of Wall Street.” The episode traces Kroll’s rise from cleaning up corporate graft in New York to building Kroll Associates, a private intelligence powerhouse that hired ex-CIA and FBI operatives and shaped global investigations. Ghost unpacks Kroll’s ties to NewsGuard, its role in blacklisting independent media, and how its lead investor funnelled money into firms like Flashpoint that work with the FBI to target so-called “domestic extremists.” The discussion connects Kroll to Robert Maxwell, one of the last people to meet with him before his death, and to 9/11, where his firm ran World Trade Center security after the 1993 bombing.
Ghost also highlights how Kroll’s reach extended into Russian asset hunts under Yeltsin, kleptocrat cases from Marcos to Baby Doc, and the creation of a corporate intelligence industry built on secrets. With references to Trump’s pause on FCPA enforcement, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and the blurred lines between private intelligence and government psyops, this chapter reveals how deeply Jules Kroll’s shadow runs through finance, geopolitics, and narrative warfare.