Former Twitter employee convicted of spying for Saudi Arabia

A former Twitter worker has been convicted of failing to register as an agent for Saudi Arabia and different fees after accessing personal information on customers crucial of the dominion’s authorities in a spy case that spanned from Silicon Valley to the Middle East.

Ahmad Abouammo, a US citizen and former media partnership supervisor for Twitter’s Middle East area, was charged in 2019 with performing as an agent of Saudi Arabia with out registering with the US authorities. A jury discovered him responsible on six counts, together with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and cash laundering. The jury acquitted him on one other 5 fees involving wire fraud.

The case marked the primary time the dominion, lengthy linked to the US by way of its huge oil reserves and regional safety preparations, has been accused of spying in America.

A 2019 FBI grievance alleged that Abouammo and Saudi citizen Ali Alzabarah, who labored as an engineer at Twitter, used their positions to entry confidential Twitter information about customers, their e-mail addresses, cellphone numbers and IP addresses, the latter of which be used to establish a person’s location.

A 3rd man named within the grievance, Saudi citizen Ahmed Al-Mutairi, was alleged to have labored with the Saudi royal household as an middleman.

The US grievance alleged that person information of over 6,000 Twitter accounts was accessed, together with not less than 33 usernames for which Saudi legislation enforcement had submitted emergency disclosure requests to Twitter. Abouammo was arrested in November 2019 and launched on bond. He had pleaded not responsible. The FBI nonetheless lists Al-Mutairi and Alzabarah as wished.

Abouammo’s attorneys and Twitter didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark Tuesday.