As a Ferengi Commerce Authority agent more meticulous than usual, Brunt has become obsessed with ruining Quark ever since he investigated his mother's illegal profit-making in 2371, and a year later tried to end up the illegal strike at Quark's bar by any means necessary including the assault of Quark, winding up in Odo's security cell. After those run-ins Brunt became convinced the barkeeper was a soft, 'hewman'-addled menace to Ferengi society and tried to break him later in the year by snapping up Quark's contract for his own desiccated remains, even though he realized Quark was not really dying. When Quark broke his contract, Brunt gleefully slapped on a Ferengi writ that revoked his business permit, confiscated his assets, and forbade any business or employment association with other Ferengi. Quark later won a revocation of the writ from Nagus Zek in 2373, who foiled Brunt's overreaching plot to become Nagus himself by exposing Zek's reliance on Ishka for business advice.
Even though he loaned Quark's team a ship to rescue Ishka from Dominion kidnappers the next year, Brunt returned to his true colors. In 2374 he manipulated his way to a brief tenure as Acting Grand Nagus after all, when Zek was temporarily removed from office during the uproar over the Ishka-inspired feminist reforms. That reign too was cut brief after some furious politicking by Zek's camp with one of the influential FCA directors, Nilva.
