(Bloomberg) -- Gary Cohn is slow walking his way back to corporate life after leaving the Trump administration almost two years ago.
The former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. president has begun advising a firm that plans to launch a secure mobile phone as global cybersecurity threats mount. He earlier joined the boards of a mobile gaming company and a blockchain startup.
“When I was in the private sector, we were worried about things like cyberdata, cybersecurity and protecting material non-public information,” Cohn said in an interview Friday. “We had our ways but it wasn’t perfect. I thought the government would have substantially better infrastructure. The government didn’t have anything better than the private sector.”
Cohn is advising Hoyos Integrity as the nation’s capital is focused on President Donald Trump’s back channels of communications with Ukraine and other countries. Last week, a group of Republican lawmakers stormed a secure room in protest of the House impeachment hearings. That set off a fresh round of consternation over compromising national security. Democrats said some lawmakers breached guidelines by bringing their mobile phones into the room designed to be spyproof.
Guarding Secrets
Recently, Cohn’s old Wall Street employer has been ensnared in a case focused on a global insider trading ring busted by U.S. prosecutors. That has renewed concerns about the ability of investment banks and advisers to safeguard corporate secrets.
“It was always a nightmare when I was there, and it continues to be a nightmare for all these banks,” Cohn said. The technology being developed by Hoyos might help add a layer of security that “will solve some problems but not all problems” when it comes to thwarting insider trading.
Cohn was introduced to the firm’s founder, Hector Hoyos, by a Goldman Sachs executive. Cohn, who amassed a small fortune from his nearly three decades on Wall Street, is pumping some of his own money into the company but declined to disclose the size of his investment.
Hector Hoyos said in an interview that he’s developing a biometric-based identity authentication device that aims to be the first “unhackable” mobile technology. He sees the potential of partnering with a large payments firm or even a major financial institution.
Hoyos said his mobile firm is the twentieth company he has started in his last 30 years. A biometric expert, Hoyos has targeted his startups at arms of government focused on security such as military installations.
Manafort Friend
Hoyos is known for his ties to Paul Manafort, who’s been sentenced to prison for felonies uncovered during Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference.
“I had Manafort back in the ’90s when he ran a big consulting firm,” Hoyos said. “That became a friendship and a relationship. To me a friend is a friend, even in bad times. But he has no ties with any of my businesses.”
Would Cohn pitch the Hoyos product to his former boss at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? Turns out there’s only so much a secure phone can do.
“He will benefit from having a secure phone on his own conversations, on his email, which he doesn’t use,” Cohn said of Trump. “He could have Twitter on this phone, but that would be outside of our secure envelope.”
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