Jeff Bezos phone hack shows link to Saudi prince: UN experts
Skip to main content
  • Home
  • Economy
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • COVID-19
    • Bangladesh
    • Splash
    • Videos
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Infograph
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Thoughts
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Archive
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
    • Supplement
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Monday
August 15, 2022

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Home
  • Economy
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • COVID-19
    • Bangladesh
    • Splash
    • Videos
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Infograph
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Thoughts
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Archive
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
    • Supplement
  • বাংলা
MONDAY, AUGUST 15, 2022
Jeff Bezos phone hack shows link to Saudi prince: UN experts

World+Biz

UNB/AP
23 January, 2020, 12:25 pm
Last modified: 23 January, 2020, 12:28 pm

Related News

  • Why is Jeff Bezos one of the richest people in the world?
  • Bezos slams Biden's call for gasoline stations to cut prices
  • The Saudi investment king who no longer rules alone
  • Bezos' Blue Origin completes fifth crewed flight launch
  • Bezos and White House battle over taxes and inflation

Jeff Bezos phone hack shows link to Saudi prince: UN experts

The UN experts published their statement after reviewing a full report conducted by a team of investigators hired by Bezos

UNB/AP
23 January, 2020, 12:25 pm
Last modified: 23 January, 2020, 12:28 pm
Photo: Reuters
Photo: Reuters

The phone of Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos was hacked after receiving a file sent from an account used by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, United Nations experts said Wednesday.

The two experts called for an "immediate investigation" by the United States into information that suggests that Bezos' phone was likely hacked after he received an MP4 video file sent from the Saudi prince's WhatsApp account in May 2018, after the two exchanged phone numbers at a dinner in California.

The file was sent to Bezos' phone five months before Saudi critic and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was killed by Saudi government agents inside the Saudi consulate in Turkey in October.  At the time, the crown prince was being widely hailed for ushering in major social reforms to the kingdom, but Khashoggi was writing columns in the Post that highlighted the darker side of the crown prince's simultaneous clampdown on dissent.

The Post was harshly critical of the Saudi government after Khashoggi's killing and demanded accountability in a highly public campaign that ran in the paper for weeks after his death.

"The information we have received suggests the possible involvement of the Crown Prince in surveillance of Bezos, in an effort to influence, if not silence, The Washington Post's reporting on Saudi Arabia," the independent U.N. experts said.

They said that at a time when Saudi Arabia was "supposedly investigating the killing of Mr. Khashoggi, and prosecuting those it deemed responsible, it was clandestinely waging a massive online campaign against Mr. Bezos and Amazon targeting him principally as the owner of The Washington Post."

The UN experts published their statement after reviewing a full report conducted by a team of investigators hired by Bezos. The experts said they reviewed the 2019 digital forensic analysis of Bezos' iPhone, which was made available to them as U.N. special rapporteurs. The independent experts are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council.

The digital forensic investigation that was commissioned by Bezos and shared with the UN experts assessed with "medium to high confidence" that his phone was infiltrated on May 1, 2018, via the MP4 video file sent from the crown prince's WhatsApp account.

The experts said that records showed that within hours of receiving the video from the crown prince's account, there was "an anomalous and extreme change in phone behavior" with enormous amounts of data being transmitted and exfiltrated from the phone, undetected, for several months.

Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, called the hacking allegations "absolutely illegitimate."

"There was no information in there that's relevant. There was no substantiation, there was no evidence," he told an Associated Press reporter at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "It was purely conjecture, and if there is real evidence, we look forward to seeing it."

Saudi Arabia is already under investigation in the US for another case involving Twitter. US prosecutors in California allege that the Saudi government, frustrated by growing criticism of its leaders and policies on social media, recruited two Twitter employees to gather confidential personal information on thousands of accounts that included prominent opponents.

Bezos went public last February after allegedly being shaken down by the US tabloid National Enquirer, which he said threatened to expose a "below-the-belt" selfie he'd taken and other private messages and pictures he'd exchanged with a woman he was dating while he was still married.

Bezos wrote in a  lengthy piece for the Medium  that rather than capitulate to extortion and blackmail, "I've decided to publish exactly what they sent me, despite the personal cost and embarrassment they threaten." While he did not accuse Saudi Arabia's crown prince of being behind the hacking of his phone, he noted that the owner of the National Enquirer had been investigated for various actions taken on behalf of the Saudi government.

Bezos' chief investigator, Gavin De Becker, went further, saying in a published report last March that the investigation found the Saudis obtained the private data of Bezos. His piece for The Daily Beast outlined in detail what he said was the crown prince's close relationship with the chairman of AMI, David Pecker, which is the parent company of the National Enquirer.

At the time of his dealings with the crown prince, Bezos had been looking for a site in the Middle East to expand Amazon's cloud services. The billionaire technology mogul had visited Saudi Arabia in 2016 to meet with the crown prince before meeting with him again during the prince's tour of the United States in 2018. The company ultimately selected the island nation of Bahrain off the coast of Saudi Arabia, which opened in July.

Amazon has also expanded into the Middle East with its 2017 purchase of e-commerce website Souq.com, which is a competitor of Noon.com, a platform that launched that same year and is heavily funded by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund that is overseen by the crown prince.

Another senior Saudi official in Riyadh, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, told the AP that the kingdom finds it "distressing" that these claims are being made "devoid of evidence or fact.

"The kingdom of Saudi Arabia does not conduct illicit activities of this nature, nor does it condone them," the official said.

The Financial Times, which has seen the forensic report that was done by FTI Consulting., said the investigation "does not claim to have conclusive evidence," and "could not ascertain what alleged spyware was used."

Top News

Jeff Bezos / Saudi Prince / UN expert

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Photo: TBS
    5 crushed to death as BRT girder falls on car in Uttara
  • Chawkbazar fire: Six bodies found from restaurant
    Chawkbazar fire: Six bodies found from restaurant
  • Emptier than we thought.Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg
    Oil demand forecasts aren't as bullish as they seem

MOST VIEWED

  • Emptier than we thought.Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg
    Oil demand forecasts aren't as bullish as they seem
  • A view shows the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in the course of Ukraine-Russia conflict outside the Russian-controlled city of Enerhodar in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine August 4, 2022. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko
    Russia will facilitate IAEA mission to Ukrainian nuclear plant, foreign ministry says
  • About 42% of Europe’s gas came from Russia through the Nord Stream pipeline. It transports about 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year. Photo: Reuters
    Why Europe faces climbing energy bills
  • Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting on the development of the country's metallurgical sector, via a video link at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia August 1, 2022. Sputnik/Pavel Byrkin/Kremlin via REUTERS
    Putin boasts of Russian weapons prowess, says Moscow is ready to share it with allies
  • The Federal Reserve building is pictured in Washington, DC, US, August 22, 2018. REUTERS/Chris Wattie/File Photo
    As Fed warns of turbulence ahead, markets remove their seat belts
  • Alex Jones attempts to answer questions about his text messages asked by Mark Bankston, lawyer for Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, during trial at the Travis County Courthouse , Austin, Texas, US, August 3, 2022. Briana Sanchez/Pool via REUTERS
    Inside the Alex Jones jury room: tensions, pizza and 'lizard people'

Related News

  • Why is Jeff Bezos one of the richest people in the world?
  • Bezos slams Biden's call for gasoline stations to cut prices
  • The Saudi investment king who no longer rules alone
  • Bezos' Blue Origin completes fifth crewed flight launch
  • Bezos and White House battle over taxes and inflation

Features

TBS Sketch

Bangabandhu and the spirit of Liberation War were killed in 1975

3h | Supplement
The macabre multicide: How we failed our supreme leader

The macabre multicide: How we failed our supreme leader

6h | Supplement
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman with his eldest daughter Sheikh Hasina and his grandson Sajeeb Wazed at his Dhanmondi residence. Photo: Achieve

The darkest night of 15 August

8h | Supplement
As long as the Padma and the Meghna will flow…

As long as the Padma and the Meghna will flow…

9h | Supplement

More Videos from TBS

Britons consider life without pets as living costs soar

Britons consider life without pets as living costs soar

Now | Videos
The only incident of demonetisation in the history of Bangladesh

The only incident of demonetisation in the history of Bangladesh

1h | Videos
Why swiss banks keep client information secret?

Why swiss banks keep client information secret?

1h | Videos
The smart band that will alert you of high temperature

The smart band that will alert you of high temperature

3h | Videos

Most Read

1
Dollar crisis: BB orders removal of 6 banks’ treasury chiefs 
Banking

Dollar crisis: BB orders removal of 6 banks’ treasury chiefs 

2
From left Afzal Karim, Murshedul Kabir and Mohammad Jahangir
Banking

Sonali, Agrani and Rupali banks get new MDs

3
Photo: Collected
Transport

Will Tokyo’s traffic model solve Dhaka’s gridlocks?

4
Representational Image. Photo: Collected
Bangladesh

Air passengers should plan extra commute time to airport: DMP

5
Arrest warrant against Habib Group chairman, 4 others 
Crime

Arrest warrant against Habib Group chairman, 4 others 

6
Ambassador of Switzerland to Bangladesh Nathalie Chuard. Photo: Courtesy
Bangladesh

Bangladesh never asked for particular info from Swiss bank: Ambassador

EMAIL US
[email protected]
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2022
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - [email protected]

For advertisement- [email protected]