The US government has launched a new round of sanctions against commercial spyware makers and their organizations.
In a press release In a report published by the US Treasury Department, the country’s government announced further penalties for Intellexa executives, employees and organizations that were part of the consortium.
In March 2024, the US government sanctioned Intellexa Consortium, a company that developed and sold the infamous Predator spyware. The group consists of Intellexa SA (Greece), Intellexa Limited (Ireland), Cytrox AD (North Macedonia), Cytrox Holdings ZRT (Hungary), and Thalestris Limited (Ireland).
Managers and companies
Predator is a piece of commercial spyware that allows access to data stored and sent from target devices such as smartphones. It is a powerful piece of malware that operates without any interaction with the victim and has reportedly been sold to authoritarian governments that target political opponents, dissidents, journalists, human rights activists, and similar individuals.
At the time, the U.S. government also sanctioned the group’s founder, Tal Jonathan Dilian, and Sara Aleksandra Fayssal Hamou, a corporate offshoring specialist who provides management services. This week, five more people were added to the list, as well as another company.
They are Felix Bitzios (owner of a company that supplied Predator to an undisclosed foreign country), Merom Harpaz and Panagiota Karaoli (top executives in the consortium), Andrea Nicola Constantino Hermes Gambazzi (the ultimate owner of Thalestris Limited and Intellexa Limited, members of the Intellexa Consortium) and Artemis Artemiou (Artemiou) (CEO and member of the board of Cytrox Holdings Zartkoruen Mukodo Reszvenytarsasag).
Among the sanctioned entities is now Aliada Group, a British Virgin Islands-based company and member of the Intellexa Consortium. The Treasury Department alleges that this format “facilitated tens of millions of dollars in transactions with the network.”
“The United States will not tolerate the reckless spread of disruptive technologies that threaten our national security and undermine our citizens’ privacy and civil liberties,” said Bradley T. Smith, Acting Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. “We will continue to hold accountable those who enable the spread of exploitative technologies, while also encouraging the responsible development of technologies that align with international norms.”