A former Twitter employee accused of spying for Saudi Arabia was convicted on six criminal counts, including acting as an agent for the country. He has also been found guilty of turning over personal information to those related to Saudi’s royal family.
Ahmad Abouammo is a dual U.S.-Lebanese citizen who at Twitter helped oversee relationships with journalists and celebrities in the Middle East and North Africa from 2014 to 2015.
He was found guilty by a jury of charges including acting as an agent for Saudi Arabia, money laundering, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and falsifying records, following a two-week trial in San Francisco federal court.
He was found to have used his position at Twitter to find personal details identifying critics of the Saudi monarchy and providing the information to Prince Mohammed’s aide Bader al-Asaker.
In return, he reportedly received a $20,000 watch and paid a total of more than $300,000 to an account in Lebanon set up in Abouammo’s father’s name.
Abouammo faces up to 20 years in prison when he’s sentenced
According to the federal complaint, Abouammo and another Twitter employee named Ali Alzabarah were approached by the Saudi government and offered gifts, cash and luxury goods for their cooperation in collecting personal information on Twitter users of interest.
“Abouammo and Alzabarah fraudulently used their positions and access to information at Twitter to provide Foreign Official-1 and others related to, and working for, the government of KSA and the Saudi Royal Family with nonpublic information held in the accounts of Twitter users,” according to the indictment.
The Saudi government first contacted Abouammo in May 2014, asking him to arrange a tour of Twitter’s San Francisco office for a group of Saudi “entrepreneurs”.