Staff Reports
A former Twitter employee was found guilty by a federal grand jury on Tuesday of spying for Saudi Arabia and engaging in a money laundering operation. The verdict was handed out on Tuesday.
A former Twitter employee was found guilty by a federal grand jury on Tuesday of spying for Saudi Arabia and engaging in a money laundering operation. The verdict was handed out on Tuesday.
BREAKING: Former Twitter employee Ahmad Abouammo was found guilty of spying for Saudi Arabia.
While working at Twitter, he searched up users who criticized the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and shared that info with kingdom officials in exchange for $$$. https://t.co/QUygqW32VB
— Meghan Bobrowsky (@MeghanBobrowsky) August 9, 2022
During the closing statements, a public defender reportedly stated that "the government provided you with parts and pieces to form the picture they wanted you to perceive." This information was reported by Court House News. "They want you to disregard everything else and throw out what doesn’t fit their story.”
According to the Wall Street Journal, Abouammo worked for Twitter between the years of 2013 and 2015, and during that time, he was in charge of managing the company's contacts with notable users from the Middle East and North Africa. The grand jury decided to bring one count of bank fraud, one charge of money laundering, and one charge of document falsification against the defendant. Five additional counts of wire fraud were dropped as having no basis in reality.
While working at Twitter, according to the accusations made by the prosecutors, he gathered information about user profiles that were critical of the Saudi government and then sent that information back to Saudi Arabia. According to the reports, he obtained a variety of information, some of which included email addresses and telephone numbers.
The defendants argued that the prosecution had failed to prove its case, and that Abouammo had just been performing his duties at Twitter. However, the eleven-person jury did not find the prosecution's case to be convincing.
Prosecutors believe that Bader Binasaker, also known as Alzabarah to Al Asaker, is responsible for recruiting Abouammo to participate in the conspiracy. Bader Binasaker is a major adviser to Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia. According to Court House News, the prosecutors have presented a record of Abouammo's meetings with Binasaker. One of these sessions apparently took place in June 2014 and involved Abouammo giving the Saudi consultant a tour of the Twitter premises.
Binasaker is reported to have given Abouammo a Hublot watch with an approximate worth of $40,000 after the conclusion of what is said to have been a tour. The prosecution claims that Abouammo began receiving considerable payments from Binasaker and then deposited those payments into a bank account that had been formed in the name of his father in order to conceal the source of the money. This is the theory behind the prosecution's contention.
During the time that he was receiving funds by wire transfer, the prosecutors claim that he sent confidential user information to the Saudi authorities. While functioning on behalf of the monarchy in 2015, it is estimated that he collected information from more than 6,000 different Twitter accounts. This information was published in the Wall Street Journal.
The preceding is a summary of an article that originally appeared on TRENDING POLITICS
