Intellexa founder sentenced to prison in Greece for wiretapping

On Thursday, a Greek court sentenced the founder of Intellexa, a collective of spyware makers, to eight years in prison for illegal wiretapping and privacy violations, according to several reports. The ruling against founder Tal Dilian marks the first known time a spyware maker has been sentenced to jail following the misuse of their technology. The court ordered authorities to further investigate the matter, and stayed the sentence pending appeal.

The sentencing is tied to a scandal dubbed “Greek Watergate,” which dates back to 2022. This scandal involved the wiretapping of phones belonging to politicians, journalists, businesspeople, and military officials. Wiretapping, which is the act of secretly listening to or recording telephone conversations, was carried out using the Predator spyware developed by Intellexa. Alongside Dilian, the court also sentenced his business partner Sara Aleksandra Fayssal Hamou, his former deputy administrator and shareholder of Intellexa Felix Bitzios, and Yiannis Lavranos, who owned a company linked to Intellexa.

The legal pressure on the company extends beyond Greece. In 2024, the U.S. government sanctioned Intellexa and several of its linked companies, Dilian, and Hamou, for their role in developing its spyware, known as Predator. Predator is a spyware developed by Intellexa. These sanctions, which are official penalties imposed by a government, were issued in response to the development of the technology, which was used to target government officials and journalists. The sanctions targeted the collective of spyware makers and its key executives, including Dilian and Hamou, for their involvement in the creation of the software.

Why it matters

This ruling sets a legal precedent, as it is the first known instance of a spyware developer receiving a prison sentence for the misuse of their technology.