The methods of this unit, like the corresponding UNIT 8200, were “privatized” and thus companies such as NSO offered their services to governments. According to foreign analysts, the blackmail method was heavily used in Mexico through material recorded by the company.
When NSO and the Pegasus software were revealed a new phone tracking software made its appearance. It is the Predator manufactured by Tal Dilian’s company Intellexa. Dilian makes his appearance in Cyprus, from where, after relations with the ruling party, the Democratic Alarm (DISY), he begins surveillance in Cyprus. In November 2019, Dilian’s team was arrested at Larnaca airport collecting passenger data. The case is covered by the Cyprus authorities and Dilian is looking for a European country to set up his company headquarters. Through personal relations with Megaros Maximou, Tal Dilian introduces Intellexa SA in Greece in March 2020.
The deal with Dilian and the UNIT 81 agent
Intellexa opens luxury offices in Greece. Dilian’s ex-wife appears as the manager of the company Sarah Alexandra Hamou, who lives in Cyprus. From the parent company of the Greek Intellexa, the establishment of the network, which will soon become a surveillance spy network, is undertaken by It was Semana and Isaac Rudy. They make the agreements with the “interested” Greeks and choose the staff. To organize the operational operation of the Predator system, they will arrive in Greece in 2020 Barry Lavie Yarden and in July 2021 o Erez Ophir. The second is neither a random nor an unknown person. He is a former captain of UNIT 81, the secretive electronic espionage group.
Upon his arrival in Greece, Erez publishes on his Linkedin profile that he works for a “secret cyber security company”. The fact that a company linked to agents of a foreign country is active in Athens would be expected to send an alarm to the EYP and the Greek government. Not only is this not happening, but company officials have excellent relationships with Maximus agents, to whom they advertise the capabilities of the Predator system.
The persons of the network and the connections with the EYP
Within a year, from November 2020 to November 2021, six people of Israeli origin have arrived at Intellexa’s offices, working as “computer systems analysts and programmers”. The salaries reach 10,000 euros for some of them and they are the faces of Predator.
In addition to Bar Lavi Yarden and former agent Erez Ofir, Intellexa in Greece is worked by Norich Ofer, Hayot Roey, Veiner Amir Hay, Hetzroni Eitan Shmul. The core of Intellexa also includes twelve Greeks (among them a Greek woman of Albanian origin). Their names are available to the newspaper. None of Intellexa’s employees disclose where they work. Those who maintain professional profiles on social media simply write that they work for a “secret cyber security company”.
As is known, the first concern of Mr. Mitsotakis when he assumed power was to put the EYP under his control. His decision of complete and non-transparent control of the secret services is accompanied by two more decisions. He puts his nephew as an intermediary in the relationship with the EYP Grigori Dimitriadis and creates a new department in EYP, the KETYAK (Technological Support, Development and Technology Center). From the first moment, the creation of KETYAK was characterized by EYP employees as the creation of a paraEYP.
A law is passed which provides that the operation of KETYAK is not subject to any control. It can operate in crypto and manage funds that are untraceable. About 250 employees of the EYP are moving from the service to a new service at the Ministry of National Defense and their positions are taken by persons trusted in Maximos’ environment. According to information, a group of about 15 people is coordinating the information collected from the monitoring done through EYP and from that done through Intellexa’s Predator.
The prosecutor of the EYP Vasiliki Vlachou signs approximately 16,000 citizen monitoring orders per year. The purpose of the monitoring is to record through the EYP the circle of persons who are targets. Because the follow-up order in the EYP can be leaked due to the notification to several service agents, a combined method is chosen. The target is monitored for a while by the EYP and after a while the file is closed, with the argument that there was nothing incriminating for the monitored person. However, from the communications data collected by the EYP, the Predator agents can see what the target’s frequent contact network is. In this way, they infect the interlocutors of the target with Predator and not the target itself, but indirectly ensure its monitoring.
Blackmail and manipulation
The EYP – Predator surveillance network that was created does not look like the classic intelligence gathering networks. It is a copy of the operating rules of UNIT 81 and UNIT 8200, the Israeli secret services. The information collected is largely of a personal nature. That is, data in any form (video, audio, text) that contains the hidden history of the persons who were put under surveillance. Thus they are led to blackmail and manipulation. Possibly this explains the large number of government officials who are under surveillance.
Following Documento’s watchlist revelations, a prominent government minister was reportedly warned not to make any move to protest his surveillance because Predator had collected evidence of his relationship with offshore companies and black money. Other ministers in the past were kept in the government “classroom” with information about various elements of surveillance. Extortion with “pink” videos and extramarital affairs was the most frequent but not the only one.
Espionage and the prime minister
Did Kyriakos Mitsotakis know about all this? It is perhaps the most innocent question. Was he the mastermind? Let’s see how the actual events are. The malicious software Predator was detected on the phones of T. Koukakis and the president of KINAL N. Androulakis. Then it was revealed that they themselves were also being monitored by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. Even though the events were aggravating for Mr. Mitsotakis, since a joint monitoring mechanism with two arms emerged, the prime minister did not want to clarify his position and shed light. The Parliament voted, and indeed with retroactive effect, a law that abolished the citizen’s right to be informed about his surveillance as soon as Koukakis submitted a relevant request based on the law. Repeal the law. His tracking was just leaked Kostis Hatzidakis from EYP and Predator (after a relevant publication of the “Estia” newspaper) the prime minister, instead of restoring the old law that gave citizens the right to information, hastily introduced a law that again prohibits immediate information and of course has no retroactive effect.
In addition, in his public statements, Mitsotakis talks in general about surveillance by “private individuals” and about Predator, but he disconnects the Predator software from the company Intellexa. That is, it strips reality of its real elements. In other words, that in Greece a spying company linked to special agents was given ground, which now seems to be monitoring the entire government and persons with sensitive positions. Why is the prime minister not concerned about the surveillances that were published but is running to deny and discredit them? What makes him think that a company that has Predator software and is run by special former foreign intelligence officers isn’t monitoring those on the lists we published? In what country in the world when evidence leading to espionage is published does the prime minister not be alarmed, but instead made to lie in favor of the company?
Evidence available to Documento indicates that all institutions-related factors were under surveillance by Predator.
Who uses this data and how? Doesn’t Mitsotakis worry? In short, the prime minister’s attitude is clearly culpable.
After the disclosure of the other malicious software, Pegasus, US officials had expressed to the “Washington Post” the certainty that this system has a back door through which any data collected is also used by the Israeli secret services.
In Greece there is no concern. Our sources at the core of the surveillance insist that the Predator system operated with the permission and blessing of the government in Greece, engaged in widespread espionage, and provided the government with surveillance data of its own choosing in return.
What is certain, apart from Intellexa being staffed with foreign agents, is that it is a shell company. It has no activities other than those shown as activities through invoicing to the parent company or subsidiaries. So what did he do in Greece?
Who was ‘buying’ cyber security? Instead of responding, the government obfuscates the situation, seals the investigation with privacy laws, and blames whistleblowers.
Tags: International espionage network Predator Mitsotakis blessings
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