A US federal court in San Francisco on Tuesday indicted a former Twitter employee on charges of spying on users for Saudi Arabia.
A Lebanese-American grand jury indicted Ahmed Abuamo on two counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit internet fraud, two counts of money laundering, one count of falsifying records and one count of acting as an agent of a foreign government without proper disclosure. .
The court found Abu Amo not guilty on five counts of wire fraud or conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Prosecutors said Abu Amo, 44, sold information about a Twitter user about seven years ago in exchange for money and an expensive watch. But his defense team insisted that he did nothing but accept gifts from the Saudis to run their business.
U.S. Attorney Colin Sampson told jurors in recent notes: “The evidence shows that the defendant sold his position to someone close to the crown prince of Saudi Arabia for a price and the belief that no one was watching.” Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Defense attorney Angela Chuang countered that while there appeared to be a conspiracy about seven years ago to obtain information about Saudi dissidents on Twitter, prosecutors could not prove Abu Amo was part of it.
Abu Amo resigned from Twitter in 2015 and moved to Seattle, where he lives, to work for e-commerce giant Amazon, according to court documents. After three days of deliberation, the jury found Abu Amo guilty on 6 of the 11 counts.
While at Twitter, Ahmed Abuamo managed media engagement in the Middle East and North Africa region. He established relationships with prominent figures in the region and received hundreds of thousands of dollars and a luxury watch from the top adviser to the Saudi Crown Prince.
Prosecutors said he shared dissidents’ personal user information with Saudi authorities.
Shuang admitted that Abu Amo violated Twitter’s business rules by failing to notify the San Francisco-based company that he had received $100,000 in cash and a watch worth more than $40,000 from someone close to the Saudi crown prince.
But he downplayed the significance of the gift, stressing that it was no more than a “small amount” in Saudi culture, which is known for its generosity and lavish gifts.
Abu Amo was arrested in Seattle in November 2019 on multiple charges, including acting as an illegal agent for a foreign government.
Prosecutors Abuamo and Ali al-Zabare accused a Twitter employee of being hired by Saudi authorities between late 2014 and early the following year to obtain private information about accounts that published content critical of the regime.
Prosecutors said Twitter employees could use their credentials to collect email addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth and other private information to identify people behind anonymous accounts.
Abu Amo was free on Tuesday, awaiting sentencing, despite concerns raised by prosecutors that he was trying to flee the country.
Al-Zabareh, who is from Saudi Arabia, is wanted on charges of failing to register in the United States as an agent of a foreign government under US law, according to an FBI statement.
Elzabara, another former Twitter employee, fled the United States before being arrested.
Chuang claimed that prosecutors were trying to punish Abu Amo for Zubara’s actions, adding, “That’s a mistake they made. They let Zubare flee the country while he was under FBI surveillance.”
Source: Lebanon Debate
