Was Bezos targeted to silence his critical newspaper?
THE world’s richest man’s phone was hacked by Saudi Arabia’s crown prince in an attempt to end condemnation of him and his country, the United Nations has suggested.
The UN called for an ‘immediate investigation’ after its report alleged private information and pictures were stolen from Amazon boss Jeff Bezos after he received an encrypted video from Mohammed bin Salman via WhatsApp.
And it suggested the crown prince, known as MBS, had access to Mr Bezos’ private messages and knew about his mistress, TV star Lauren Sanchez, months before their affair was public knowledge.
Mr Bezos is the owner of the Washington Post. The paper’s columnist Jamal Khashoggi was a fierce critic of the Saudi government and was later murdered by the Saudis in Turkey.
Mr Bezos and MBS had swapped phone numbers after a dinner in Los Angeles in April 2018. The video, which appeared to be an promotional film about telecommunications, was sent from the crown Prince’s WhatsApp account a month later, said the UN. It contained spyware, it is alleged.
Almost immediately after the Amazon boss opened the file, unbeknown to him, a ‘massive and unauthorized exfiltration of data’ from his phone began, continuing and escalating for months.
Mr Bezos’ phone was sending out data at a rate 30,000 per cent higher than his normal usage, indicating it had been hacked, it was claimed.
Then, a month after Mr Khashoggi’s murder in October 2018, MBS allegedly sent a sexist meme with a photograph of a woman ‘resembling’ Miss Sanchez. The caption read: ‘Arguing with a woman is like reading the software license agreement. In the end you have to ignore everything and click I agree.’
The UN said: ‘It is an image resembling the woman with whom Bezos is having an affair, months before the affair was known publicly.’
It was three months before the Bezos/Sanchez relationship came to light. Details of the message were disclosed by investigators yesterday as evidence of the crown prince’s ‘possible involvement’ in the hacking of Mr Bezos’ phone.
Saudi Arabia called the allegations ‘absurd’.
Agnes callamard, UN special rapporteur on summary executions and extrajudicial killings, and
David Kaye, special rapporteur on freedom of expression – said: ‘The information we have received suggests the possible involvement of the crown prince in surveillance of Mr Bezos, in an effort to influence, if not silence, The Washington Post’s reporting on Saudi Arabia.
‘The allegations reinforce other reporting, pointing to a pattern of targeted surveillance of perceived opponents.’
Mr Bezos commissioned an investigation into the leak of his private information after the US newspaper the National Enquirer published the story and then threatened to expose more messages and images, including a ‘below-the-belt’ selfie he’d taken.
The investigators brought in by Mr Bezos said the image resembling Miss Sanchez was sent ‘precisely during the period Bezos and his wife were exploring divorce’ – suggesting the Saudis knew about the state of their marriage.
It was claimed MBS’s account sent another message on February 14 last year shortly after Mr Bezos was provided with a detailed brief
‘Targeted surveillance’ ‘There is nothing against you’
ing on the phone about the Saudi online campaign against him.
It said: ‘Jeff all what you hear or are told … it’s not true … there is nothing against you or Amazon from me or Saudi Arabia.’
Mr Bezos’ own experts’ analysis of his iPhone x concluded Saudi Arabia had been involved in the breach. They said the most likely explanation was surveillance software such as that developed by Israeli firm NSO Group called Pegasus. The product has been linked to other Saudi surveillance cases.
The UN experts pointed to concern over the ‘growing role of the surveillance industry in permitting the unaccountable use of spyware to intimidate journalists’.
They said the circumstances and timing of the hacking of Mr Bezos strengthened support for further investigation into allegations that MBS ‘ordered, incited, or, at a minimum, was aware of planning for but failed to stop the mission’ to kill Mr Khashoggi.
Mr Bezos said he is co-operating with any investigation.
Boris Johnson has reportedly also communicated with the crown prince on WhatsApp. A former Foreign Office source told The Daily Telegraph they were ‘ 99 per cent sure’ the pair exchanged ‘the occasional message’. Another said Mr Johnson would give his number to world leaders while foreign secretary, the paper reported.