Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ mobile phone was reportedly hacked in 2018 after the billionaire received a video sent by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Crown Prince Of Saudi Arabia hacked Bezos Phone
The Amazon founder was chatting with Mohammed Bin Salman on WhatsApp before receiving an encrypted video from the prince’s number. The video contained a malicious file that is said to have infiltrated Bezo’s phone. The allegations came after the leaking of Bezos’s personal information to gossip magazine The National Enquirer as well as the murder of the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
It is alleged that large amounts of data were stolen from Bezo’s mobile phone within hours. This is according to an investigation into the hacking conducted on behalf of Bezos. The revelation that the crown Prince might have had a hand in the hacking is something that might send shockwaves from Silicon Valley to Wall Street. This could also undermine bin Salman’s efforts to lure more investors to Saudi Arabia to fulfill his promise of transforming the kingdom.
The National Enquirer published damaging information on Bezos
Equally, the revelation will raise hard questions for Saudi regarding how the National Enquirer came to get hold of Bezo’s private information, including texts and publish it. The US tabloid published texts between Bezos and his girlfriend Lauren Sanchez sometime early last year.
Bezos claimed that he was being blackmailed by the Enquirer’s parent company American Media Inc. He claims AMI asked him to say that the publishing of his private life was not motivated politically, or else they would publish explicit photos of him. Bezos allegedly referenced media reports linking the kingdom of Saudi Arabia with AMI stating that the kingdom was not pleased regarding the Washington Post’s coverage of the Khashoggi murder.
The kingdom has severally denied connection to the murder of Khashoggi, claiming that rogue actors conducted the act. This is despite UN rapporteur Agnes Callamard investigating the murder claiming that the state had a hand in it.
The Enquirer has indicated that it didn’t do anything wrong in reporting on Bezo’s private life.