A former Twitter employee suspected of spying on behalf of Saudi Arabia was found guilty, Bloomberg reported Tuesday. The employee, U.S. resident Ahmad Abouammo, was also convicted by a jury of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, falsifying records and money laundering. He faces up to 20 years in prison.
Abouammo worked on media partnerships in the Middle East at the company from 2014 to 2015. According to the federal complaint, he and another Twitter employee, Ali Alzabarah, were approached by the Saudi government and offered cash and luxury goods for their cooperation collecting personal information on Twitter users of interest. Alzabarah, an engineer at the company, fled to Saudi Arabia and evaded trial. In light of his connection to the Saudi government, Twitter sent out warnings to some users that their accounts had been targeted by state-sponsored actors in 2015.
In the trial, the prosecution argued that a prominent member of Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman’s government tapped Abouammo for help investigating his enemies. In the course of that cooperation, Abouammo allegedly collected personal information inclu …
