WASHINGTON (AP) – Three former U.S. intelligence and military agents have admitted to providing sophisticated hacking technology in the UAE and have agreed to pay about $ 1.7 million to settle criminal charges in a agreement that the Justice Department described Tuesday as the first of its kind.
The defendants – Marc Baier, Ryan Adams and Daniel Gericke – are accused of working as senior executives at a company based in the United Arab Emirates that conducted piracy operations on behalf of the government. Prosecutors say the men provided hacking and intelligence-gathering systems that were used to break into computers in the United States and elsewhere in the world.
The case, in federal court in Washington, accuses former U.S. officials of violating U.S. laws related to export control and computer fraud. It appears to be part of a growing trend highlighted a few months ago by the CIA of foreign governments that hired former U.S. intelligence agents to bolster their own spacecraft, officials of the practice that runs the risk of exposing information about U.S. secrets.
The charges were filed under a deferred processing agreement that, in addition to requiring a $ 1.68 million payment, will also oblige the men to cooperate with the Justice Department investigation and break any ties with any United Arab Emirates intelligence or police agency. If they meet these terms for three years, the Department of Justice will not proceed with any prosecution.
As part of the deal, the three men did not discuss any of the facts alleged by prosecutors.
The Justice Department described it as the “first resolution of its kind of an investigation into two different types of criminal activities,” including the supply of unlicensed technology for piracy.
“Contract hackers and those who otherwise support such activities in violation of U.S. law should expect to be prosecuted for their criminal conduct,” said Mark Lesko, acting deputy prosecutor. the national security division of the Department of Justice.
Prosecutors said the trio left a U.S.-based company operating in the UAE to join an Emerati company that would give them “significant increases” in their salaries.
The companies are not mentioned in the collection documents, but Lori Stroud, a former employee of the National Security Agency, said she worked with the three men in the UAE at CyberPoint based in the United States and then at DarkMatter, owned by the United Arab Emirates. The company’s founder and CEO, Faisal al-Bannai, told The Associated Press in 2018 that DarkMatter does not engage in any kind of piracy, although he acknowledged the firm’s close business ties with the UAE government, as well as hiring former CIA and NSA analysts.
Prosecutors said that between January 2016 and November 2019, the defendants “expanded the breadth and increased the sophistication” of the operations they provided to the UAE government. The Department of Justice purchased products that allowed computers and mobile devices to be introduced to companies around the world, including those established in the United States.
This includes an exploit called “zero-click” (which can be split into mobile devices without any user interaction) that Baier bought from an unnamed U.S. company in 2016.
Adams and Gericke’s attorneys did not immediately return the messages requesting comments and a Baier attorney declined to comment.
The Justice Department described each of them as former U.S. intelligence or military services and said their work for the UAE-based company began after they left government. . Baier identifies himself in a 2019 Reuters news story as having previously worked in an elite NSA hacking unit.
The CIA warned in a letter earlier this year about “an increase in the number of former officers who have disclosed sensitive information about CIA activities, personnel and commercial vessels.”
The letter sent to former CIA officials was signed by Sheetal Patel, the agency’s deputy counterintelligence director. He described as a “harmful trend” a practice of foreign governments hiring former intelligence officers “to develop their espionage capabilities.” Some examples mentioned include the use of access to information or CIA contacts to obtain business opportunities, as well as “working for state-sponsored intelligence-related companies in non-fraternal countries. ”.
“We ask that you protect yourself and the CIA by protecting the classified commercial building that supports your company,” Patel wrote.
____
Suderman reported from Richmond, Virginia. Associated Press writer Nomaan Merchant contributed to this report.