They do, according to Jonna Mendez, but those placed don’t collect a company salary, only a government salary. This causes some contention since they are paid far less than salaried employees and get no equity, so it leads to high turnover

> but those placed don’t collect a company salary, only a government salary

Technically, they collect the company salary, and then the CIA reduces their pay by the same amount.

At one point, they couldn't keep any excess if the company pay was higher. Now, they're apparently allowed to keep an amount that doesn't significantly exceed comparable federal pay.

Ooh, do you happen to know where she said that?

She gave 2 fireside chat style events at the commonwealth club of California and it was at one of those. They’re on YouTube, how I found them. There is other press coverage though.

Infiltrated is not necessarily the right word. Company executives know, but few other employees do

Can you be more precise about whether you’re referring to the American company or its foreign subsidiaries? My understanding is that it would be a violation of the CIA’s charter to plant a spy within an American company’s domestic arm, though of course the CIA does set up American front companies. Embedding officers within foreign subsidiaries of American multinationals seems more likely.

The US intelligence agencies would have a hard time planting employees in US firms while remaining within the bounds of FISA. They certainly have assets inside major Chinese firms though, of course.

I sincerely doubt anyone gives a shit about whatever "FISA" is, sounds like a credit card company or a shoe brand tbh.

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I can’t tell if this is excellent sarcasm or complete ignorance.

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It doesn't quite work like that. You don't go off and find some super smart person who can easily get a job at Nvidia and tell them "Hey you, go work for this company". You find someone who already works at Nvidia, and you bump into them at their kids' little league game, and you get chatting and build a rapport and over time you build trust and before you know, you've got a trusted source inside Nvidia. They don't even need to know they're a plant. And then, if you really do need something more than information you can go further. But you start with someone already at the company and you target them, rather than the other way around.