Former Twitter employee Ahmad Abouammo, 44, was convicted by a jury after a two-week trial in San Francisco on charges that he supplied private information about certain Twitter users to Saudi Arabia.
“These individuals are charged with targeting and obtaining private data from dissidents and known critics under the direction and control of the government of Saudi Arabia. Insider threats pose a critical threat to American businesses and our national security,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge John F. Bennett.
Abouammo faces up to 20 years in prison after being charged in 2018 with acting as an “illegal agent” of Suadi along with Ali Alzabarah and Ahmed Almutairi (Ahmed Aljbreen).
Prosecutors say Abouammo and Alzabarah joined Twitter in 2013 and were recruited by officials of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for unmasking its critics on the social media platform.
Court documents showed that the two people used their access to internal systems to gain unauthorized access to non-public information about users of specific accounts that were critical of the regime.
The information gathered by the accused include email addresses, telephone numbers, IP addresses and date of birth. This information was handed over to the officials and Abouammo was rewarded with a US$300,000 cash gift and a US$40,000 Hublot Unico Big Bang King Hold Ceramic watch.
Alzabarah fled the U.S. in December 2015 with the help of Almutairi, while Abouammo was arrested on November 5, 2019.
The sources for this piece include an article in TheHackerNews.