US Treasury sanctions Intellexa Consortium for threatening national security

The United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned five individuals and one entity associated with the Intellexa Consortium for their role in developing, operating, and distributing commercial spyware technology.

OFAC states that the spyware, primarily marketed under the brand name Predator’, presents a significant threat to the United States’ national security.

Predator spyware has been used in the past to eavesdrop on journalists, government officials, policy experts, and politicians worldwide to intimidate political adversaries and impede the freedom of speech, including in the United States.

The software is both intrusive and highly sophisticated: once installed, it has access to all of the information on the target’s smartphone, such as photos, documents, digital communication, location, and microphone records. No user interaction is required to infect a victim’s device. All it takes is a single-click or zero-click attack.

On Monday, OFAC announced new sanctions against Felix Bitzios (owner of an Intellexa Consortium company), Andrea Nicola Constantino Hermes Gambazzi (owner of Thalestris Limited and Intellexa Limited), Merom Harpaz (top executive of the Intellexa Consortium), Panagiota Karaoli (director of multiple Intellexa Consortium entities), Artemis Artemiou (general manager and member of the board of Cytrox Holdings), and Aliada Group Inc. (a British Virgin Islands-based company and member of the Intellexa Consortium).

People and entities listed on OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List face significant legal and financial consequences. All properties of the above-mentioned individuals and entities in the United States are blocked and must be reported to OFAC. The same goes for companies that are owned for 50 percent or more.

Furthermore, American companies are prohibited from doing business with the designated individuals and businesses. Financial institutions that engage in transactions with the sanctioned persons may expose themselves to sanctions.

“The United States will not tolerate the reckless propagation of disruptive technologies that threaten our national security and undermine the privacy and civil liberties of our citizens. We will continue to hold accountable those that seek to enable the proliferation of exploitative technologies while also encouraging the responsible development of technologies that align with international standards,” Acting Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Bradley Smith says in a press release.