Daily Diary

Grapes of wrath

Posted 31/07/2007 by The Daily Diary

The practice of giving deals exciting-sounding codenames is far from new, as lawyers labour to inject some fun into yet another soul-crushing all-nighter. Now, however, it seems some crafty City types are using the ruse to milk clients for all they are worth.

Apparently an increasingly popular move is to name your deal something exotic like ‘Project Lafite’ or ‘Project Bollinger’ – a not-so-subtle hint to satisfied clients that they might like to send over a case of vintage plonk as a reward for successfully shifting that derelict warehouse in Bracknell.

However, this plan backfired for the City team working on ‘Project Shiraz’, when lawyers attempting to wire funds to the US found the transfer repeatedly failing. Investigations revealed that an influx of monies tagged with the ‘Project Shiraz’ moniker had set alarm-bells ringing – literally – for ‘homeland security’ types in US intelligence.

Next time, the lawyers will presumably christen their transaction after a grape that doesn’t share its name with an Iranian city.