Saudis accused of hacking Jeff Bezos’s phone
Amazon CEO’S security claims the regime targeted him as part of ‘extensive surveillance efforts’
Jeff Bezos’s security chief has accused Saudi Arabia of hacking the Amazon chief executive’s phone and leaking his private messages in retaliation for The Washington Post, which Bezos owns, fiercely criticising Riyadh following the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.
JEFF BEZOS’S security chief has accused Saudi Arabia of obtaining private information from the Amazon chief executive after allegedly gaining access to his phone.
Gavin de Becker, a security specialist who has worked closely with Mr Bezos for 22 years, claims evidence had emerged of Saudi hacking after Mr Bezos directed him to “spend whatever is needed” to find out who was responsible for leaking his messages to Lauren Sanchez, a former television anchor who is reported to have been dating the world’s richest man.
“Our investigators and several experts concluded with high confidence that the Saudis had access to Bezos’s phone, and gained private information,” Mr de Becker wrote in an article for The Daily Beast website on Saturday.
In January, the US tabloid The National Enquirer published a series of messages between Mr Bezos and Ms Sanchez shortly after he announced his planned divorce from wife of 25 years, Mackenzie Bezos.
The Amazon chief struck back in February by publishing a blog post that alleged The National Enquirer’s parent company, American Media Inc (AMI), had attempted to blackmail him.
Mr Bezos said it had threatened to publish intimate photographs, allegedly sent to Ms Sanchez, unless the investigation into the leaked messages was dropped.
Mr de Becker, who has worked closely with the CIA and FBI during his career, said he was surprised to find AMI allegedly had been “in league with a foreign nation that’s been actively trying to harm American citizens and companies”.
His initial investigation found that Ms Sanchez’s brother, Michael Sanchez, was paid to reveal details of their relationship by The National Enquirer. But after interviews with current and former AMI executives, advisers to Donald Trump, associates close to those at the heart of Saudi Arabia’s government, Middle East intelligence experts and cybersecurity specialists, Mr de Becker found the alleged hacking was a “key part of the Saudis’ ‘extensive surveillance efforts’”.
Mr Bezos had become a target of the Saudi regime after The Washington Post, which he owns, fiercely criticised Riyadh following the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, Mr de Becker suggested.
Experts told Mr de Becker of the Saudi government’s capability to “collect vast amounts of previously inaccessible data from smartphones in the air without leaving a trace”, he wrote.
Evidence from the investigation has been turned over to federal officials, Mr De Becker said, while noting that it is “unclear to what degree” AMI is aware of the Saudi government’s involvement.
The Saudi government’s minister of state for foreign affairs denied all accusations against the kingdom, saying it had “absolutely nothing to do” with The National Enquirer’s story. The Saudi embassy in Washington DC did not respond to a request for comment.
Mr de Becker’s claims about the Saudi government will be difficult to verify, as he has said he will not speak again publicly on the issue.
Few details were offered in his article regarding the evidence for his accusations.
Responding to Mr de Becker’s claims, an American Media spokesperson said: “Despite the false and unsubstantiated claims of Mr de Becker, American Media has, and continues to, refute the unsubstantiated claims that the materials for our report were acquired with the help of anyone other than the single source who first brought them to us… there was no involvement by any other third party whatsoever.”