Fossil Fuel hacking middleman gets nearly 7 years in prison. We still don't know who hired him.

[Think. Again.]

Emily Sanders, Nov 17, 2023
Full Article: https://www.exxonknews.org/p/exxonknew-hacking-middleman-gets

The man who pleaded guilty to participating in a massive criminal hacking scheme targeting climate advocates who campaigned against ExxonMobil was sentenced to nearly 7 years in prison yesterday, while the question of who hired him remains unanswered.

During his sentencing hearing in federal court in Manhattan, Israeli private investigator Aviram Azari said through a translator that “there will come a day” when he would be able to tell his victims more. Federal prosecutors say Azari served as the scheme’s middleman, connecting his clients with hackers across the globe who were directed to infiltrate the emails and online accounts of thousands of victims and their close friends, family, and coworkers between 2014 and 2019. In 2019, he was arrested on his way to Disneyland and detained in New York.

-snip-

Azari had pleaded guilty to counts of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit hacking, and aggravated identity theft last April. None of Azari’s clients, who prosecutors say paid Azari $4.8 million, have been named.

-snip-

“I would’ve thought by now, given the facts and circumstances of this case, that the board [of ExxonMobil] would’ve called for a transparent and independent investigation to make sure that none of their employees or agents were involved in this crime,” Lee Wasserman, director of the Rockefeller Family Fund and a victim of the hacking, told reporters outside the courthouse. “But Exxon’s silence is deafening.”

[Evolve Dammit]

1. K&R for exposure

[Delarage]

2. I hate Exxon

I haven't gone to an Exxon or Mobil since the Valdez disaster. But their involvement in creating doubt about climate change is their biggest sin.

This all makes me think of Midnight Oil speaking truth to power with their concert outside of the Exxon building back in the day.....

[link:

?si=ftD3y4HjkmoXIJrw|

[Farmer-Rick]

3. So Exxon Mobil hired hit men

To infiltrate the emails and online accounts of thousands of climate advocates who campaigned against ExxonMobil and their close friends, family, and coworkers.

That sounds like half the world. Most everyone I know....even Republicons... hate ExxonMobil, unless they work for them.

Shows how much ExxonMobil is run by a bunch of psychopaths. Revenge is mine says ExxonMobil. And don't you dare campaign against our mighty wealth and power. We are the oligarchs that control your lives and you will submit.

[Think. Again.]

4. Seems like their psychopathy is working for them...

After 50 years of scientific warnings;

We are STILL increasing our CO2 output, they are STILL selling increasing amounts of oil, and we have STILL not begun to build out our alternative energy technology to stop any of that.

[Farmer-Rick]

5. So true

That personality disorder is very successful in today's business world. I think being a psychopath or sociopath is a requirement for being CEO.

They get to destroy the world for fun and profit.

[Scrivener7]

6. Where have we heard Azari's name before?

Was it Cambridge Analytica?

[marble falls]

8. Not that I can find.

[lostnfound]

9. Oleg Deripaska hired him; other Russian oligarchs did too

https://www.silicon.co.uk/security/cyberwar/russians-hacking-azari-459954
Jailed Israeli private detective Aviram Azari allegedly worked with powerful Russians to conduct surveillance on rivals, says New York court filing

Ultra-wealthy Russians used the services of an Israeli private investigator currently in US custody and an Indian hacking group to carry out surveillance operations, a reporter said in a New York court filing.

Independent journalist Scott Stedman told the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York that Aviram Azari, a jailed Israeli private investigator, worked on “surveillance and cyber-intelligence operations at the behest of Russian oligarchs”, citing public and confidential sources.

One of the oligarchs was aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska, who indirectly employed Azari in connection with a business dispute in Austria, Stedman said in a filing.

[Scrivener7]

10. Thank you!!! I knew I'd heard it before. Charming guy, huh,?

[marble falls]

7. Who benefited? Exxon. That's the haystack with a hell of a needle.