Vincent Tchenguiz, an Iranian-born British entrepreneur and property tycoon who until 2015 was the largest shareholder in the parent company of the scandal-hit data firm Cambridge Analytica, also played a prominent role in the founding stages of the controversial Israeli business intelligence company Black Cube, and provided it with vital funding, according to a 2013 Israeli lawsuit filed by lawyers for Tchenguiz, timesofisrael.com reports.
Black Cube is known in Romania for being charged with spying former National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA), our note.
Black Cube, which was founded in 2011 and whose former honorary board president was the late Mossad chief Meir Dagan, has been at the center of considerable international press scrutiny in recent months, the source further reads.
Many of the company’s reported behind-the-scenes activities – including its work on election campaigns in Hungary and Nigeria, its work in Romania, its involvement in the Harvey Weinstein scandal, and its activities relating to the Iran nuclear deal, when it allegedly conducted a “dirty ops” campaign against former Obama administration officials – have made headlines worldwide.
Cambridge Analytica and its parent company SCL Group, too, have been the subject of intense media attention, with the FBI and US Justice Department reportedly investigating the now-defunct Cambridge Analytica over its role in the 2016 election campaigns of US President Donald Trump and other Republican politicians, including the harvesting and alleged illegal use of personal data of tens of millions of Facebook users.
‘Romania Journal’ reported in April 2016 that the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) chief, Laura Codruța Kovesi, was spied by former Mossad agents, according to Rise Project. Four Israeli citizens were investigated by DIICOT for spying on communications and for attempt to discredit Laura Codruța Kovesi.
Two of the suspects who had spied on the DNA head are Dan Zorella and Avi Yanus, former intelligence officers and co-founders and CEOs of the Israeli private investigation firm Black Cube. Meir Dagan – former Mossad director during 2002-2011 – also worked for the company.
Ron Weiner and David Gelowicz were arrested in Romania. The investigators claim that Ron Weiner was actually in charge of the computer operation, while David Geclowicz contacted people in the family and entourage of Laura Codruţa Kovesi. She had been allegedly monitored in March 2016, three email accounts of the DNA chief’s close persons were broken.
“It was a failed intimidation attempt” – was the first reaction of the DNA Chief Prosecutor Laura Kovesi in the scandal.
Ron Weiner, one of the Black Cube employees, accused of intimidation against the DNA chief Laura Codruţa Kovesi, was sentenced in January 2017 by the Bucharest Court of Appeal to two years and eight months in prison, on probation.
The second Israeli investigated in connection with the same deeds, David Geclowicz, was sentenced by the Bucharest Court to two years on probation on November 16, 2016.
All Israelis accused were later released.
read the entire feature in the Times of Israel