Predator Scandal: US Sanctions Greek Intellexa Employees

The US imposed sanctions against five individuals and one legal entityinvolved in the Intellexa consortium, which sold illegal Predator spyware in Greece, which was found on dozens of phones, including those belonging to politicians, journalists and businessmen.

The sanctions targeted key figures involved in the Greek wiretapping scandal that came to light in 2022.

The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said it would impose sanctions on individuals and entities “for their role in the development, exploitation, and dissemination of commercial espionage technologies that pose a significant threat to the national security of the United States.”

It added that the sanctions “add to the US government's concerted action against commercial spyware vendors” that has already been “levied against 13 individuals.”

US Subpoenas Predator Creator T. Dilian and All Associated with Intellexa SA

“The United States will not tolerate the reckless spread of destructive technologies that threaten our national security and undermine the privacy and civil liberties of our citizens, ” said Bradley T. Smith, Acting Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. “We will continue to hold accountable those who seek to facilitate the spread of exploitative technologies and to encourage responsible development of technologies that meet international standards.”

• The US Treasury's press release on Intellexa is available here Here.

The following individuals were subject to sanctions:

• Felix Bitzios, whom OFAC describes as “the beneficial owner of a company in the Intellexa consortium that was used to supply Predator spyware to a foreign government client”. Bitzios also acted as the manager of Intellexa SA, a company in the Intellexa consortium.”
• Andrea Nicola Constantino Hermes Gambazzi, “the beneficial owner of Thalestris Limited and Intellexa Limited, members of the Intellexa consortium… Thalestris Limited owns the rights to distribute Predator spyware and is the parent company of Intellexa SA. Thalestris Limited has participated in the processing of transactions on behalf of other entities within the Intellexa consortium.”
• Merom Harpaz, “top manager of the Intellexa consortium, also acted as manager of Intellexa SA.”
• Panagiota Karaoli, “director of several companies in the Intellexa consortium that are controlled by or are subsidiaries of Thalestris Limited.”
• Artemis Artemiou, “CEO and member of the board of Cytrox Holdings Zartkoruen Mukodo Reszvenytarsasag (Cytrox Holdings), member of the Intellexa consortium [и] employee of Intellexa SA”.
• Aliada Group Inc., “based in the British Virgin Islands and a member of the Intellexa consortium [который] facilitated transactions involving the network worth tens of millions of dollars.” The head of Aliada Group is Dilian. Aliada Group was associated with Intellexa SA and Intellexa Limited, and also owned shares in Cytrox Holdings.

As a result of the introduction of sanctions “all property and interests in property of the above persons that are located in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons is blocked and must be reported to OFAC. In addition, any entities that are directly or indirectly, individually or in the aggregate, 50 percent or more owned by one or more blocked persons are also blocked.”– the OFAC statement said.

It added that “financial institutions and other persons that engage in certain transactions or activities with sanctioned entities and persons may be subject to sanctions or enforcement actions”.

Let us recall the main reason why Americans are so outraged actions of the Mitsotakis government. In early February, the US confirmed that its officials had been wiretapped by Predators in Greece during conversations with Greek government officials.

In February, Greece's National Intelligence Service tried to justify itself by saying that the targets of the wiretaps were Greek officials, not American diplomats, but that their responses and data were recorded and even shared with a party that was not supposed to have them. This means that the company's servers Intellexa S.A. were hacked by foreign intelligence agenciesand their data containing compromising information on Greek politicians, officials and businessmen was probably leaked to Russia or China.

The US believes that on this planet only they have the right to eavesdrop on everyone and everything, and they are extremely offended. After all, what is allowed to Jupiter is not allowed to the bull. Read more about the Predator case in our publications on link.

From the author: In theory, sanctions were also imposed on the main defendant in the case, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, but it appears he was able to buy offoffering as compensation the purchase of US military equipment at inflated prices, transferring critically important weapons for the national army to Ukraine, and some small things, such as the national interests of Greece.

The author's opinion may not reflect the opinion of the editors.

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