Latest news with #Forlit
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Yahoo
Private investigator facing extradition to the US "worked for a London leading law firm"
THE private investigator facing extradition to the US on charges of computer hacking also allegedly worked for a London leading law firm and one of its senior partners. Amit Forlit, 57, an Israeli, last week failed to block his extradition from the UK. He is accused of conspiracy and wire fraud. Forlit is alleged to have worked alongside convicted hacker Aviram Azari, who was sentenced to 80 months in prison in the US after pleading guilty to what the US Department of Justice described as a 'massive spear phishing campaign'. Documents from the hearing detail the charges for which Forlit was indicted by a New York Grand Jury on 30 November 2022. He is alleged to have targeted 'over 100 victim corporations, organisations and individuals' to steal 'confidential business and personal information' for profit. For his work allegedly undertaken for a Washington DC lobbying firm alone, he was paid $16 million between 2013 and 2018. The work was summarised as being related to two projects, one discrediting climate change activists and the other concerning Argentinian debt relief. He was described by both the US in their filings and District Judge John McGarva in his judgment as a 'cyber-mercenary'. Forlit was also previously named in connection with another alleged hack-for-hire scheme, this time for the law firm Dechert LLP and its disgraced former London head of white-collar crime, Neil Gerrard. Filings in that case outline how he was brought on to work with another private investigator, London-based Stuart Page, to support Dechert's investigation into the apparent misappropriation of a large amount of UAE emirate Ras Al Khaimah's state funds. An affidavit from Page outlines 'Project Beech', on which he worked with Forlit. Page is alleged to have reported to RAK executive Jamie Buchanan - revealed as the neighbour of Gerrard during a London trial in 2020 - from early 2015 onwards and also to Gerrard during his engagement. In February 2015, Page decided to instruct Forlit and his company to assist in his investigation, it is claimed. In a parallel of the evidence in the Washington lobbying case, Page details that Forlit had told him that his company and his subcontractors used SIGINT – signal intelligence, 'which is intelligence-gathering by the interception of communications' and 'hacking techniques' to secure information. Of some of the information included in the reports produced for their client, Page stated that 'It was obvious to me (and it would have been obvious to anyone else reading the reports) that such documents were obtained as a result of unauthorised access to computers.' From 2015 to 2020, Page was paid 'around $300,000 per month' for his work for Dechert and RAK, of which 'approximately $250,000' was then paid to Forlit and his company. The importance of the claims of hacking in the preparation of these reports is highlighted in Page's admittance that, when his budget was threatened to be cut, the prospect of 'losing access to some of Amit's sources and methods' ensured that the payments continued. Page also discusses the clandestine nature of the reporting to his and Forlit's client. Forlit would send a coded message to Page, to be deleted, letting him know to check the drafts of an email account that only the two of them and Page's assistant could access, it is said. This would be downloaded to a laptop with no connection to Page's company, printed on a standalone printer, and the draft overwritten, allegedly, all to avoid creating a trail between sender and recipient. From there, electronic copies of the reports were deleted and hard copies provided to Buchanan and, in some cases, to Gerrard himself. Page outlines an instance in which someone other than Gerrard or his secretary opened one of the reports, and Gerrard was deeply concerned, requiring Forlit to send future copies to Gerrard's home. Gerrard was worried about holding meetings at Dechert's London offices, reportedly. Page recounts that attendees would have to sign in and present identification, and in late 2016 or early 2017 Gerrard became concerned of there being 'a written record indicating that Amit (or any other member of Amit's team) had visited him', so future meetings were moved to Buchanan or Forlit's hotel room. As with his work for the Washington lobbying company, where the fruits of his alleged hacking were deployed in the media and in litigation, his research for Dechert formed the backbone of a case against a US aviation executive, Farhad Azima. RAK's case at trial was that they had innocently discovered the hacked data online - a story which has since been disproved, including by Page. Indeed, Page outlines that, rather than stating that Forlit had discovered the hacked data online, a cover story was prepared and finalised at a 'small boutique hotel in the mountains' of Switzerland, at which Forlit provided security, where Gerrard conducted a 'mock trial' as 'judge and the cross-examining counsel' to 'perfect the narrative' of the cover story. Papers in another court case issued a damning finding against Gerrard, concluding in May 2022 that he was a 'highly unreliable and at times dishonest witness' who had committed 'serious and serial wrongdoing'. Gerrard retired from Dechert in 2020, but litigation from the work he did continues. A report recently made public in one of these cases shows that another private investigator working for Dechert, Nicholas Del Rosso, downloaded data allegedly hacked from a US lawyer representing another opponent of RAKIA to his laptop the dat after his cross-examination in Azima's trial. Dechert have settled Azima's claims against them in both the UK and US for the alleged hacking of Azima's data, but claims against Forlit and other alleged co-conspirators are ongoing. This, and possibility of a full trial of the allegations against Forlit should he be extradited to the US, promise to shine a greater light on this murky world, hidden by extensive subterfuge. 'Cyber-mercenaries' like Forlit rely on secrecy, as adroitly summarised in a message from Forlit to a colleague following Azari's arrest, as quoted in the US filings for his extradition: 'why the f*ck was he sending emails what a dumb arse.' Dechert commented: 'The claims brought by Mr Azima against Dechert involving Mr Forlit were resolved in February 2024 with no admission of liability by the firm.' Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
New York Times
30-04-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Man Accused of Hacking Climate Groups Can Be Sent to U.S., Judge Says
An English court on Wednesday approved the extradition of an Israeli man charged by New York prosecutors with running a 'hacking-for-hire' operation that targeted environmental groups. Prosecutors say that companies run by the man, Amit Forlit, 57, earned at least $16 million by hacking more than 100 victims and stealing confidential information on behalf of a lobbying firm working for a major oil company. Lawyers for Mr. Forlit identified the company as ExxonMobil in a January court filing. Exxon has been sued by Democratic attorneys general and other local officials over its role in climate change. The lawsuits claim the company covered up what it knew about climate change for decades to continue selling oil. The lobbying firm was identified in the filing as DCI Group. An Exxon statement said the company had not been involved in and was not aware of any hacking. 'If there was any hacking involved, we condemn it in the strongest possible terms,' the statement said. A spokesman for DCI, Craig Stevens, said the firm instructs employees and consultants to comply with the law and that no one at DCI had directed or was involved 'in any hacking alleged to have occurred a decade ago.' DCI also said that 'radical anti-oil activists and their billionaire donors, many of whom still sleep on beds paid for by their family's fossil-energy legacy trust funds, peddle conspiracy theories' about the firm. That was an apparent reference to the role of the Rockefeller family in supporting organizations advocating for climate-change litigation. Heirs of John D. Rockefeller, who made his fortune in oil more than a century ago, today lead a foundation, the Rockefeller Family Fund, that plays a key role in the movement to sue oil companies over climate change. Lee Wasserman, its director, has said he was targeted by the hacking campaign. Mr. Forlit was arrested in London last year following a grand jury indictment in New York on charges of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit computer hacking, which could carry a lengthy sentence. His lawyers had argued that he should not be extradited because he would not receive a fair trial in the United States because of the political firestorm over climate change litigation. They argued that 'one of the reasons underpinning the prosecution is to advance the politically motivated cause of pursuing ExxonMobil, with Mr. Forlit a form of collateral damage.' His lawyers also argued that Mr. Forlit would be in danger at the Metropolitan Detention Center, the only federal jail in New York, which has been plagued by violence and dysfunction. High-profile defendants recently held there have included Luigi Mangione, Sam Bankman-Fried and Sean Combs, also known as Puff Daddy and Diddy. The Westminster Magistrates' Court rejected those concerns. Mr. Forlit can appeal the decision. His lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment. One of the groups targeted was the Union of Concerned Scientists, which has long researched the fossil fuel industry's role in what it calls climate science disinformation. The group also does source-attribution science, the practice of using data to estimate the contributions made by specific corporations to the effects of global warming, like sea level rise or wildfires. Its work has been cited in lawsuits against the oil industry. The organization learned of the hacking from a 2020 report by Citizen Lab, a cybersecurity watchdog group at the University of Toronto, according to Kathy Mulvey of the Union of Concerned Scientists. The report found that hackers had targeted American nonprofit groups working on a campaign called #ExxonKnew, which argued that the company had hidden information about climate change. Numerous Union of Concerned Scientists employees received suspicious emails in which hackers tried to trick them into giving up passwords or installing malicious software. Prosecutors with the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of New York began an investigation. One associate of Mr. Forlit, Aviram Azari, pleaded guilty in New York in 2023 to crimes including computer intrusion, wire fraud and identity theft and was sentenced to six years in prison. Mr. Forlit ran three security and intelligence-gathering firms, two registered in Israel and one in the United States, that hired people to hack into email accounts and devices, the filing said. His clients included a Washington lobbying firm working on behalf of 'one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, centered in Irving, Texas, in relation to ongoing climate change litigation being brought against it.' Exxon was previously headquartered in Irving. The lobbying firm identified targets to Mr. Forlit, then he or another person gave a list to Mr. Azari, who owned another Israel-based firm and hired people in India to illegally access the accounts, the filing said. Those details were used to obtain documents that were given to the oil company and the media 'to undermine the integrity of the civil investigations,' the filing said.
Straits Times
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Straits Times
Israeli private investigator loses extradition fight over US 'hack and leak' charges
LONDON - An Israeli private investigator wanted by the U.S. for allegedly carrying out a "hacking for hire" campaign at the behest of an ExxonMobil lobbyist lost his fight on Wednesday against extradition from Britain. Amit Forlit, 57, is facing charges of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and computer hacking relating to his alleged targeting of environmental activists, his lawyers said in January, confirming Reuters' earlier reporting. Lawyers representing the U.S. authorities said Forlit was alleged to have directed the hacking of activists, with documents then passed to a lobbying firm and subsequently leaked to the media. Forlit, who was arrested at London's Heathrow Airport last year, argued he should not be sent to the U.S. because – as his charges relate to climate change litigation against Exxon – his prosecution is "unquestionably political". His objections to extradition were rejected by Judge John McGarva, who said in his written ruling that U.S. prosecutors simply alleged that Forlit was a "hired gun". "The highest he can put his case is that he is collateral damage in the climate change litigation," McGarva said. He added that Forlit's prosecution "may be dropped by the new administration" of President Donald Trump. Forlit, whose bail was extended, has 14 days to challenge the decision at the High Court. His lawyer Edward Grange told reporters he expected the case to end up at the High Court. Forlit's lawyers said in court filings for January's hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court that Forlit was charged with a conspiracy to hack individuals and entities involved in or associated with environmental activism. His lawyer Rachel Scott said the hacking was "alleged to have been commissioned by DCI Group, a lobbying firm representing ExxonMobil". In November, Reuters reported that Forlit was wanted by the U.S. Department of Justice in connection with an espionage campaign targeting environmentalists seeking to hold Exxon legally accountable for its impact on climate change. Exxon previously said it "has not been involved in, nor are we aware of, any hacking activities" and that, if there were hacking involved, "we condemn it in the strongest possible terms". DCI Group previously said the allegations that it commissioned the hacking operation were false, adding it directs all of its employees and consultants to comply with the law. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Straits Times
Israeli private eye loses extradition fight over US 'hack and leak' charges
LONDON - An Israeli private investigator wanted by the United States for allegedly carrying out a "hacking for hire" campaign at the behest of an Exxon Mobil lobbyist on Wednesday lost his fight against extradition from Britain. Amit Forlit, 57, is facing charges of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and computer hacking relating to his alleged targeting of environmental activists, his lawyers said in January, confirming Reuters' earlier reporting. Forlit, who was arrested at London's Heathrow Airport last year, argued he should not be sent to the U.S. because – as his charges relate to climate change litigation against Exxon – his prosecution is "unquestionably political". His objections to extradition were rejected and his case was sent to British ministers to decide whether to send Forlit to the U.S., though Forlit can challenge the decision at the High Court. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
