SAN FRANCISCO — A former Twitter employee was found guilty Tuesday by a federal jury on six counts related to accusations that he spied on the company’s users for Saudi Arabia.
During his time at Twitter, Ahmad Abouammo, 44, managed media partnerships in the Middle East and North Africa. He developed relationships with prominent figures in the region and received hundreds of thousands of dollars and a luxury watch from the chief adviser to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. In return, the prosecutor said he shared personal user information of dissidents with Saudi authorities.
A jury found Mr. Abouammo guilty of two counts of wire fraud or attempted wire fraud. count of money laundering, count of falsification of records, and count of acting on behalf of a foreign government without proper disclosure of its work. Abouammo was acquitted of five counts of wire fraud or conspiracy to wire fraud.
Abouammo’s trial ended Thursday and took 17 hours for a jury of six men and five women to reach a verdict.
Abouammo was arrested in 2019. Ali Alzabarah, also a former Twitter employee of his, was charged with the scheme but fled the country before being arrested. Several of the charges for which Abouammo was acquitted related to communications between Alzabarah and Saudi officials. This suggests that jurors were not convinced that Abouammo had influenced the actions of his colleagues.
Prosecutors described Abouammo as a spy who sold access to users’ personal information to Saudi Arabia. Prosecutors said Saudi representatives paid Abuanmo to obtain and share information about dissidents and other Twitter users.
“Power. Greed. Lies. You’ve heard this story told by the evidence in this courtroom,” U.S. Assistant Attorney Eric Chen said in his closing remarks.
Abouammo’s lawyers described Abouammo as merely a Twitter employee at work. Prosecutors did not link Abouammo’s access to the information and receiving payment to the fact that the information was actually shared, his attorney said.
Angela Chuang, the federal public defender representing Abuanmo and lead attorney in the case, said: , must vote not guilty.”
