A former Twitter worker has been convicted of failing to register as an agent for Saudi Arabia and different prices after accessing non-public information on customers crucial of the dominion's authorities in a spy case that spanned from Silicon Valley to the Center East.
Ahmad Abouammo, a U.S. citizen and former media partnership supervisor for Twitter's Center East area, was charged in 2019 with performing as an agent of Saudi Arabia with out registering with the U.S. 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 prices involving wire fraud.
The case marked the primary time the dominion, lengthy linked to the U.S. by means of its large 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 electronic mail addresses, telephone numbers and IP addresses, the latter of which be used to determine a consumer's location.
The grievance alleged Abouammo "knowingly falsified and transmitted to brokers of the FBI a falsified bill in an effort to impede a pending federal legal investigation."
The grievance alleged that the workers have been rewarded with a designer watch and tens of 1000's of dollars funneled into secret financial institution accounts.
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 U.S. grievance alleged that consumer information of over 6,000 Twitter accounts was accessed, together with no less than 33 usernames for which Saudi regulation 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 did not instantly reply to a request for remark Tuesday.