Report: Four Israelis being investigated for spying in Romania
According to the report, the suspects spied on, and attempted to discredit, the chief prosecutor of the DNA, Romania's National Anticorruption Directorate.
By JPOST.COM STAFFUpdated: APRIL 6, 2016 12:52Israeli espionage(photo credit: REUTERS,JPOST STAFF)
Four Israeli citizens are being investigated on alleged espionage charges in Romania, Romanian outlet the Rise Project reported on Tuesday.According to the report, the suspects spied on, and attempted to discredit, the chief prosecutor of Romania's National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA), Laura Kovesi Codruţa.Two of the suspects are former Israeli intelligence officers and co-founders of the intelligence firm Black Cube, Avi Yanus and Dan Zorella. The firm's honorary president was former Mossad chief Meir Dagan, who died after a battle with illness last month.The Rise Project quoted prosecutors as saying that Yanus and Zorella, along with other Black Cube employees, including Ron Weiner and David Geclowicz, "organized a group to commit offenses of harassment and other offenses, which included making threatening phone calls, launching [Internet] phishing attacks to steal access credentials and compromising email accounts, by spying on, copying and transferring correspondence."According to the report, Werner and Geclowitz have already been arrested. They are accused of hacking into the email accounts of three associates of Codruţa.The investigation is in its preliminary stage, the chief prosecutor of Romania's Directorate for the Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT), Daniel Horotniceanu, told the Rise Project.Horotniceanu said that it had not yet been determined who hired the Israeli firm Black Cube to carry out the alleged espionage activity.Black Cube describes itself as "a select group of veterans from the Israeli elite intelligence units that specializes in tailored solutions to complex business and litigation challenges."