Could Tech Guru Jeff Bezos’ Phone have been hacked by Saudi Crown Prince?
Investigators report that Jeff Bezos’ phone started behaving strangely shortly after receiving a Whatsapp video from an account linked to Saudi prince Mohammed Bin Salman.
Forensic analyses conducted on Jeff Bezos’ cellphone prove with “medium to high confidence” that the tech guru’s device was hacked by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman. This was after the Amazon chief received a suspicious video, reportedly from the prince’s Whatsapp account.
Reports show that shortly after Mr. Bezos received the video on Whatsapp in 2018, his cellphone began acting strangely, sending unusually large volumes of data online. A close confidante of Bezos’, who is well versed on the investigation, says that the prince could have been used as a conduit, due to his official status. The prince’s status would make the message appear less suspicious, thus, being more active. The confidante, however, declined to be named for lack of authorization to discuss the matter.
Forensic investigations, conducted by Anthony Ferrante at the business advisory firm FTI Consulting, have been completed on behalf of Mr. Bezos. Mr. Ferrante would, however, decline to comment through an FTI spokesperson, when approached by our team.
The Guardian and The Financial Times earlier reported the investigation reports, but the Saudi Embassy maintains that the Saudi government played no role in the conspiracy. The embassy took to twitter to vehemently deny the claims calling for an urgent investigation to uncover the facts about the accusations.
From Mr. Bezos’ security consultant, Gavin de Becker, Bezos could have been targeted for being the head of The Washington Post. The popular American newspaper had been aggressively reporting on the murder of the columnist, Jamal Khashoggi, a fierce critic of the Saudi government. The Central Intelligence Agency investigated the matter and concluded that Jamal was murdered following orders from Prince Mohammed.
According to FTI’s investigative report, Mr. Bezos exchanged phone numbers with Prince Mohammed in April 2018 at a dinner in Los Angeles. The prince would later use Whatsapp to initiate a conversation with Bezos the same day.
The alleged video would come a month later, and though the report does not state whether Mr. Bezos opened the file, the effect on the phone was immediate. The amount of data exiting Mr. Bezos’s cellphone would increase three hundredfold.
Following this incident, the Saudi prince has been reported to send Mr. Bezos messages on two separate occasions, suggesting having explicit knowledge of the Amazon head’s private life. The first occasion was on Nov. 8, 2018, when the prince sent a photo of Lauren Sanchez, who is rumored to have been Mr. Bezos’ lover. The message came during a crucial time when Mr. Bezos and the wife were formalizing a divorce.
Then on Feb. 16 of last year, barely two days after Mr. Bezos had phone conversations about some online attacks from Saudis, the Prince sent a message denying any role played by the Saudi government in tarnishing Mr. Bezos’ and Amazon’s name.
FTI claims that complex spying software could have been used to compromise Mr. Bezos’ phone, hence the leaking of crucial information through the device. The United Nations has since joined the investigations after a friend of Bezos’ shared the forensic analysis with the organization.
Questions on who could have had access to Mr. Bezos’ phone started rising about a year ago when The National Enquirer made public the romantic relationship between the tech executive and Ms. Sanchez, a former reporter. Mr. Bezos took issue with American media, which owns The Enquirer, claiming that the expose was meant to attack Mr. Bezos for being the owner of The Post.
However, The Enquirer has denied any role by the Saudi government, claiming that Ms. Sanchez’s brother had leaked the leaked information and photos of Mr. Bezos’ private life.
