Ahmad Abouammo, a former Media Partnerships Manager for the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) region at Twitter, has been convicted of spying for Saudi Arabia by handing over information about users who criticized the Kingdom and its royal family.
Abouammo, a U.S. resident who was born in Egypt, was found guilty last week of acting as a foreign agent without notice to the Attorney General, conspiracy, wire fraud, international money laundering, and falsifying records.
The evidence at trial demonstrated that Abouammo took bribes in exchange for accessing, monitoring, and conveying the private information of Twitter users to officials of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Saudi Royal family,” the Justice Department said. “In this position, Abouammo was responsible for protecting Twitter user information and owed Twitter his honest services. Twitter policies also required Abouammo to disclose violations of Twitter’s security policies and report gifts from those with business dealings with the company. When questioned about the accesses of Twitter user information and his receipt of bribes, Abouammo then lied to FBI investigators and falsified a document. […]
According to the evidence presented at trial, Abouammo began receiving bribes from an official of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as early as December 2014. The foreign official met with Abouammo in London and provided Abouammo with a luxury Hublot watch. Abouammo later acknowledged the value of the watch was $42,000 when he offered it for sale on Craigslist. After the meeting in London, Abouammo began repeatedly accessing private information about several Twitter accounts, at least one of which was an influential account who was critical of members of the Saudi Royal Family and the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Abouammo also continued to communicate with the official of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, including regarding the influential critical account.
Evidence at trial further showed that after Abouammo traveled to Lebanon in February 2015. A bank account was opened in the name of his father in Lebanon and Abouammo obtained access to that bank account. The account then received $100,000 from the official of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Abouammo laundered the money by sending it into the United States in small wire transfers with false descriptions. Abouammo left his job at Twitter in May 2021 and, shortly thereafter, received another $100,000 into the bank account in Lebanon accompanied by a note from the official apologizing for the delayed payment. Abouammo responded, in part, by asking whether the official wanted any additional information from Twitter.
In October 2018, FBI agents interviewed Abouammo at his residence about his involvement in the scheme with officials of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Evidence at trial demonstrated that Abouammo provided false information to the FBI investigators and falsified an invoice for one of the payments he received from the foreign official. (DOJ)
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In addition to fines, he faces 10 years in prison for acting as a foreign agent and 20 years in prison for the other counts. A sentencing hearing has not been scheduled yet.
“The Northern District of California is home to many of the most innovative technology companies in the world,” said U.S. Attorney Stephanie M. Hinds for the Northern District of California. “One consequence of this good fortune is that companies in this district often collect and store vast amounts of data from customers and vendors. In this case, the government demonstrated, and the jury found, that Abouammo violated a sacred trust to keep private personal information from Twitter’s customers and sold private customer information to a foreign government. Abouammo’s decision to accept bribes in exchange for providing to a foreign government the protected information of customers could have untold damaging consequences. As this case demonstrates, we will not tolerate the misuse of personal information or attempts by foreign governments to recruit secret, malign agents at American technology companies. Where such misuse violates the federal law, offenders will be prosecuted.”
The conviction comes after President Biden’s trip to Saudi Arabia where he fist bumped the Crown Prince, despite previously calling the Kingdom a "pariah" over its murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
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