Article authors:
Reuters
Raphael Satter and Christopher Bing
Indian mercenary hackers have been working in the shadows for at least 10 years, helping private detectives gain an edge in litigation. Discovered by a Reuters investigation. Currently, one victim (an aviation executive named Farhad Azima) is exposing a secret industry that could have a spillover effect on court battles on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
Azima's outlook was once harsh. In 2020, a London judge found that an Iranian-American was responsible for fooling his former business partner, an investment fund based in the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah. In the ruling, Judge Andrew Lennon said Azima had been guilty of "serious fraud" in connection with two aviation and tourism-related commerce.
However, the incident apparently relied heavily on hacked emails mysteriously posted on the Web by whistleblowers. Azima, who has long denied allegations of fraud, believed that allies of Ras Al Khaimah's ruler, Sheikh Saud Bin Sakul Al Khaimah, had masterminded Leak to win the trial.
Witnesses called by an investment fund known as RAKIA did nothing else to convince him.
Israeli journalist Majidi Harabi told Reuters in 2016 that he had innocently found stolen material "in one of my regular Google searches." He said he shook his head with distrust.
{31 Harabi works at Sheikh Saud and asks Harabi to keep an eye on the news about Azima, his old friend, a web link to the material on the British private investigator Stuart page. Testified that he sent. However, when questioned, Harabi had a hard time remembering how often he searched for Ajima's name on Google and explaining why the page gave him such a unique job. He seemed confused even by the judge."Maybe Page could have done a Google search himself," Lennon asked.
In a May 2020 decision, Lennon said that Harabi's testimony was "unreliable" and that the page "internally contradicts" Harabi's information to Shakesaud's allies, a modern document. It is inconsistent with. " The judge determined that the hack and leak had definitely occurred, and provided an explanation provided by RAKIA witnesses on how he found the document full of "unexplained contradictions." Said.
Nevertheless, Lennon said Azima could not provide sufficient evidence that Rakia had hacked his message. He refused to abandon his email and ordered him to pay $ 4.2 million in damages.
Hit List
While the ruling is being prepared, Reuters begins sifting through a database of over 80,000 emails sent by Indian hackers between 2013 and 2020. I did. Cyber mercenaries thoroughly investigate who has been the target of court battles around the world. It's effectively a hit list. Ajima has appeared prominently.
Indian hackers have been aggressively trying to break into businessmen's emails since March 2015. Records show that accounts of Ajima's colleagues, lawyers, and friends were also tracked.
After being contacted by Reuters for comment, Azima began his own investigation. His legal team combined his inbox with his colleague's inbox and found over 700 malicious emails in 16 months alone. Azima's legal team said his data had been compromised around March 2016.
In subsequent legal documents, Azima's lawyers accused Indian tech companies CyberRoot Risk Advisory Private Ltd and BellTroX Infotech Services Private Ltd of being behind espionage.
CyberRoot hackers have created an anonymous website to spread Azima's stolen emails using blogs titled "Farhad Azima Scammer" and "Farhad Azima Exposed Again". .. He was one of the sites that Harabi said innocently accidentally found in August 2016.
According to bank records submitted by Azima's legal team, Cyber Root was paid more than $ 1 million by Nicholas del Rosso. A private detective in North Carolina who turned to a London police officer who worked at RAKIA's US law firm Dechert at the time of the hack.
A former Cyber Root employee said the "Azima Exposed" site was intended to mimic a genuine whistleblower campaign in a manner similar to an offshore leak like the Panama Papers. Was quoted in one of the filings.
Azima successfully retried the London proceedings, and three judges in the British Court of Appeals last March said that the exposure from India was "evidence to support the hacking allegations."
Businessmen are underway, claiming that Philadelphia-based law firm and one of its senior British lawyers, Neil Gerard, are the masterminds. Added Dechert and one of his former partners as defendants in the proceedings of the hacking operation.
In Azima's allegations against Gerrard: he threatened to "collateral damage" him a few weeks before the leak, leading witnesses and hacking by placing fake paper trails. I tried to hide it.
Several legal experts have stated that the proceedings against Dechert and Gerrard, which are expected to be tried in 2024, are extraordinary.
"This is unheard of," said David Butler, a partner in the civil fraud division of London-based Fox Williams law firm. "I didn't know of the alleged lawyer's request for hacking."
Dechert and Gerrard – then retired – denied the allegations and fought in court. There is. Del Rosso did not return a message. In his court filing, he allowed Cyber Root to pay, but said the money was only for routine IT work, not hacking.
Cyber Root and Bell TroX did not respond to the interview request. Sheikh Saud's office and Rakia (now part of the Ras Al Khaimah Economic Zone) did not return a message asking for comment.
Some of RAKIA's first witnesses have changed their story ever since.
Britain's private eye, Stuart Page, admits in an affidavit that he lied about how to get email. Israeli journalist Majdi Halabi also admits that he is not telling the truth.
Harabi's affidavit was filed in February, saying that the story of finding Azima's data through regular Google searches was a "cover story" created to hide the true history of emails. Said in the affidavit. "I apologize for the false testimony I provided," he added.
At the end of this month, RAKIA tried to withdraw from the case. In a letter to the High Court, sent June 22 and reviewed by Reuters, RAKIA split with a lawyer, stating that he was no longer fighting Azima's allegations, and said "$ 1 million" to resolve the issue. "Plus cost" was provided to the executives. The investment agency said it "did not allow or procure Mr. Azima's data to be hacked," but added that he may have been the victim of an unspecified "dishonest and unscrupulous third-party adviser." ..
Azima's lawyer, Dominique Holden, did not say whether the big names would accept the offer, simply saying that the settlement "must reflect the scope and seriousness of the fraud."
The dramatic turnaround of the incident is drawing attention. Azima spokesman Tim Maltin said at least five other lawyers and businessmen are in contact with Azima's legal team on suspicion of being targeted by Indian hackers as part of a separate court battle. ..
In an email from his home in Missouri, Azima tells Reuters that U.S. law enforcement agencies do more to prevent hackers from targeting litigants. He said he needed it.
"Millions of dollars have been earned by instructing law firms from hackers, investigators, and these illegal acts," he said. "The Hacking for Hire company may be thousands of miles away, but the victims are often US citizens on US land."
(Report by Raphael Satter and Christopher Bing. Ronnie Greene Edited by)
