Two Former Twitter Employees Face Spy Charges for Leaking Data to Saudi Arabia
Federal prosecutors charge two former Twitter employees with acting as Saudi agents by secretly accessing private user data of government critics. The case marks the first time U.S. authorities allege Saudi agents operated inside an American tech company.
Two former Twitter employees face federal charges for acting as spies on behalf of Saudi Arabia by accessing private data from thousands of user accounts. The prosecution marks the first time federal authorities charge Saudis with deploying agents inside the United States. Ahmad Abouammo, a U.S. citizen who works as a media partnerships manager, allegedly receives hundreds of thousands of dollars and a luxury watch to unearth personal information about critics of the Riyadh government.
Ali Alzabarah, a Saudi citizen and site reliability engineer, illegally accesses the Twitter data of over 6,000 users during a six-month period in 2015. His targets include at least 33 accounts that Saudi law enforcement specifically requests through emergency disclosures. Among the compromised profiles are well-known dissidents, including prominent activist Omar Abdulaziz, who maintains close ties to murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Abouammo attempts to cover his tracks when the FBI interviews him last year by creating a fake invoice to justify the massive payments as legitimate media consulting. As a result of this attempted deception, he faces additional charges for falsifying records to obstruct a federal investigation. Alzabarah currently remains out of reach of U.S. authorities after fleeing the country.