A former Twitter manager was found guilty by a federal jury on Wednesday of selling the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s personal information.
Ahmad Abouammo, 44, a former media partnerships manager for Twitter’s Middle East and North Africa region, was found guilty on Tuesday by a jury in California of acting as an unregistered foreign agent, conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering, and record-falsification.
This verdict was announced in a press release from the Department of Justice.
Abouammo, a dual citizen of the United States and Lebanon, was discovered to have started accessing Twitter users’ information as early as 2014 and passing it on to Saudi officials in exchange for bribery.
Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen of the DoJ’s National Security Division said,
“Abouammo acted in secret as an agent of a foreign government targeting dissenting voices, This verdict shows that the Justice Department will not tolerate any act of transnational repression and will hold accountable those who aid hostile regimes in extending their reach to our shores.”
According to an announcement, Wednesday from the office of U.S. Attorney Stephanie M. Hinds of the Northern District of California, The 44-year-old former resident of Walnut Creek was found guilty after a two-week trial, the U.S. government demonstrated that Abouammo “violated a sacred trust” to keep Twitter users’ private information and instead sold it to a foreign government.
The Department of Justice will not stand for the exploitation of personal data or attempts by foreign countries to hire covert, nefarious agents at American technology companies, Hinds added.
“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,” she said. “Abouammo’s decision to accept bribes in exchange for providing to a foreign government the protected information of customers could have untold damaging consequences.”
For each of the other counts as well as the charge of acting as a foreign agent, Abouammo could spend up to 20 years in jail and pay a fine of up to $250,000.
“Abouammo acted in secret as an agent of a foreign government targeting dissenting voices,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “This verdict shows that the Justice Department will not tolerate any act of transnational repression and will hold accountable those who aid hostile regimes in extending their reach to our shores.”
Sources: Dailywire, Theepochtimes, Eyerys
