Bezos' Phone Was Likely Hacked by Chat Account Linked to Saudi Prince, Audit Finds
22 January 2020 - 3:50PM
Dow Jones News
By Dustin Volz
WASHINGTON -- Cybersecurity experts hired by Amazon.com Inc.
founder Jeff Bezos have alleged that his phone was probably hacked
in 2018 by a WhatsApp account associated with Saudi Crown Prince
Mohammed bin Salman, according to a person familiar with the
matter.
A forensic audit of Mr. Bezos' phone by FTI Consulting, a
business advisory group based in Washington, found with "medium to
high confidence" that the device began leaking data shortly after
being sent a video file from the WhatsApp account linked to Prince
Mohammed, the person said, as part of an operation that siphoned
information for months.
Some officials at the United Nations have viewed the report by
FTI Consulting and are expected to publicly announce some of the
findings as soon as Wednesday, the person said.
Saudi Arabia on Tuesday denied the allegations. "Recent media
reports that suggest the Kingdom is behind a hacking of Mr. Jeff
Bezos' phone are absurd," the Saudi embassy in the U.S. said on
Twitter. "We call for an investigation on these claims so that we
can have all the facts out."
A spokesman for Amazon declined to comment.
In a lengthy blog post nearly a year ago, Mr. Bezos accused the
publisher of the National Enquirer of trying to blackmail him by
threatening to release embarrassing photos after the tabloid
alleged he had engaged in an extramarital affair. Mr. Bezos, who
owns the Washington Post, suggested in the post that the photos of
him may have been obtained through illicit means that involved
connections between the National Enquirer's publisher, American
Media Inc., and the Saudi government.
A month later, a security consultant hired by Mr. Bezos alleged
in the Daily Beast that investigators had determined "with high
confidence that the Saudis had access to Bezos's phone, and gained
private information." But the assertion lacked any forensic
support, and didn't directly implicate Prince Mohammed. The
Guardian and Financial Times earlier reported on the FTI
allegations.
The Wall Street Journal reported last year that the brother of
Mr. Bezos' girlfriend, Mark Sanchez, had acquired racy text
messages the Amazon founder sent to Lauren Sanchez and sold them to
the National Enquirer. Mr. Sanchez told the Journal at the time he
didn't want to "dignify" the Journal's reporting on the sale. He
described the reporting on the sale as "old rumors" from anonymous
sources. Mr. Sanchez denied sending "the many penis selfies" but
declined to comment on whether he provided photos of Mr. Bezos to
the Enquirer.
Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was killed in 2018 in
the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, and the CIA has concluded the act
was likely ordered by Prince Mohammed. The Saudi government has
contested the findings.
"The Post's essential and unrelenting coverage of the murder of
its columnist Jamal Khashoggi is undoubtedly unpopular in certain
circles," Mr. Bezos wrote in his blog post last year.
An FTI Consulting spokesman declined to comment on the work done
for Mr. Bezos.
"All FTI Consulting client work is confidential," the spokesman
said. "We do not comment on, confirm or deny client engagements or
potential engagements."
Write to Dustin Volz at dustin.volz@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 21, 2020 23:35 ET (04:35 GMT)
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