Trump administration removes 3 spyware-linked executives from sanctions list

WASHINGTON, USA – President Donald Trump’s administration has lifted sanctions on three executives tied to the spy software consortium Intellexa, according to a notice published to the US Treasury’s website.

The move partially reverses the imposition of sanctions last year by then-President Joe Biden’s administration on seven people tied to Intellexa. The Treasury Department at the time described the consortium, launched by former Israeli intelligence official Tal Dilian, as “a complex international web of decentralized companies that built and commercialized a comprehensive suite of highly invasive spyware products.”

Treasury said in an email that the removal “was done as part of the normal administrative process in response to a petition request for reconsideration.” It added that each of the individuals had “demonstrated measures to separate themselves from the Intellexa Consortium.”

Intellexa representatives did not immediately respond to email messages requesting comment.

The notice said sanctions were lifted on Sara Hamou, whom the US government accused of providing managerial services to Intellexa, Andrea Gambazzi, whose company was alleged by the US government to have held the distribution rights to the Predator spyware, and Merom Harpaz, described by US officials as a top executive in the consortium.

Gambazzi, Hamou and Harpaz did not immediately reply to messages sent to them directly or to their representatives. Dilian, who remains on the sanctions list, did not respond to messages seeking comment.

The Intellexa consortium’s flagship “Predator” spyware is at the center of a scandal over the alleged surveillance of a journalist, a prominent opposition figure, and dozens of others in Greece, while in 2023 a group of investigative news outlets reported that the Vietnamese government had tried to hack members of the US Congress using Intellexa’s tools.

Dilian has previously denied any involvement or wrongdoing in the Greek case, and has not commented publicly on the attempted hacking of U.S. lawmakers.

In its initial wave of sanctions issued in March of last year, the US government accused Intellexa of enabling “the proliferation of commercial spyware and surveillance technologies” to authoritarian regimes and alleged that its software had been used “in an effort to covertly surveil U.S. government officials, journalists, and policy experts.” – Rappler.com