LONDON LAW FIRM ACCUSED OF INVOLVEMENT IN HACKING OPERATION

The City law firm Dechert has been accused of helping a UAE sovereign investment authority to hack the accounts of the international businessman Farhad Azima and then use the stolen data to smear him, according to court documents.

A US court judgement ruled there is a plausible case that the Ras al Khaimah investment authority, part of the UAE, hacked the accounts of Azima with the assistance of Dechert. They also claim that the law firm’s then partner Neil Gerrard of “weaponising” the stolen information by threatening Azima unless he paid $4.5 million.

The court ruled that the investment authority must face a trial for hacking Azima’s computers, stealing his data, and using that data to tarnish Azima’s business reputation. The court found that there is a “reasonable inference” connecting the hacking of Azima’s computers to the investment authority as part of a business dispute.

The court based its decision upon allegations that in 2016, the UAE entity “upped the pressure by threatening to make Azima ‘collateral damage’ in the all-out war that [the UAE entity] planned to wage against its former CEO,” and ultimately published Azima’s stolen data on BitTorrent websites “presumably to punish Azima . . . in accordance with [the UAE entity’s] threat.”

The upshot is this case can now proceed to discovery which could unearth evidence about Dechert’s role in obtaining and handling the stolen emails. According to the ruling, Dechert partner Neil Gerrard threatened Azima by promising that he would be “collateral damage” if he did not provide business assistance. The court describes those statements as “threats” by that lawyer who has also been accused of over-billing by another former client, the commodities and mining corporation ENRC.

Regards, Farhad