Ahmad Abouammo, a twin US-Lebanese citizen who at Twitter helped oversee relationships with newshounds and celebrities within the Middle East and North Africa, used to be discovered responsible after a 2-1/2 week trial in San Francisco federal court docket.
Jurors acquitted him on 5 of the 11 counts he confronted.
Prosecutors stated Bader Al-Asaker, an in depth adviser to Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, recruited Abouammo to make use of his insider wisdom to get admission to Twitter accounts and dig up non-public details about Saudi dissidents.
Those accounts allegedly integrated @mujtahidd, a pseudonym for a political agitator who won hundreds of thousands of Twitter fans within the Arab Spring uprisings via accusing the Saudi royal circle of relatives of corruption and different misdeeds.
Prosecutors stated Abouammo won no less than $300,000 and a $20,000 luxurious watch from Al-Asaker, and hid the cash via depositing it in a relative’s account in Lebanon and having it stressed to his personal account within the United States.
Defense attorneys argued that the paintings Abouammo did at Twitter used to be merely a part of his process.
Abouammo used to be additionally convicted of cord fraud and truthful products and services fraud, cash laundering and a conspiracy fee.
“The executive demonstrated, and the jury discovered, that Abouammo violated a sacred accept as true with to stay non-public non-public knowledge from Twitter’s consumers and bought non-public buyer knowledge to a international executive,” US Attorney Stephanie Hinds in San Francisco stated in a observation.
Ali Alzabarah, a former colleague of Abouammo additionally accused of getting access to Twitter accounts on behalf of Saudi Arabia, left the United States ahead of being charged. Al-Asaker, Saudi’s crown prince and Twitter don’t seem to be a few of the defendants.
Source Link: https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/09/tech/former-twitter-employee-conviction/index.html