A private security firm used by several Fortune 500 companies says its phones were “ringing off the hook” with potential clients following the execution of UnitedHealth Group CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan — as top business leaders fear for their lives.
Allied Universal, which provides private security services to 80% of Fortune 500 companies was flooded with frantic inquiries after the shocking Midtown assassination on Wednesday, Glen Kucera, who runs Allied’s enhanced protection services, told the New York Times.
Kucera said the company offers a wide range of security services, including stationing guards outside offices and chauffeuring executives — but it comes at a high cost.
What we know about the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson
- Brian Thompson, the CEO of insurance giant UnitedHealthcare, was gunned down Wednesday outside a luxury Midtown hotel in a “brazen, targeted attack,” police said.
- The methodical killer used a firearm with a silencer outside the Hilton hotel along Sixth Avenue.
- The gunman fired at Thompson multiple times, striking his back and right calf before fleeing on foot.
- The NYPD released a new photo of the hooded suspect standing in front of the counter at the Starbucks at West 56th Street and 6th Avenue, just minutes from the Hilton hotel where he gunned down Thompson, 50.
- Thompson was named CEO of UnitedHealth in April 2021. He joined the company in 2004. He was one of several senior executives at the company under investigation by the Department of Justice.
- Thompson’s wife, Paulette, said her husband had been getting threats before he was killed.
- The NYPD is investigating a possible message — which appears to include the words “deny,” “depose” and “defend” — engraved on live rounds and shell casings left behind by the masked assassin.
Follow along with The Post’s live updates on the news surrounding Brian Thompson’s murder.
A company will have to dish out about $250,000 a year in order to protect a chief executive full-time, he said.
The vast increase in calls to the firm comes as dozens of Fortune 1000 chiefs will descend on Manhattan to attend a summit at Midtown’s Ziegfeld on 54th Street, not far from where Thompson was gunned down by a masked gunman outside the Hilton hotel.