https://www.wsj.com/articles/black-cube-the-bumbling-spies-of-the-private-mossad-11560793198
By Bradley Hope and Jacquie McNish
The Wall Street Journal
June 17, 2019
In 2015, a private investigator masquerading as an adviser to a wealthy Indian
businessman blundered trying to dig up dirt on an outspoken Russia critic. An
undercover operative unsuccessfully tried to prod a former Canadian judge to
disparage Jews in 2017. Last year, agents were exposed engineering a smear
effort against financier George Soros.
The would-be secret agents all worked for Black Cube, a private Israeli
investigative firm often referred to in press reports as a “private Mossad.”
The firm has helped clients by covertly eliciting damaging information about
competitors or legal opponents, among other things. But a number of its cases
in recent years have been marred when flimsy cover stories were exposed by
bumbling agents and risky tactics, according to a review of past cases and
Black Cube internal documents, along with former employees, rivals, targets and
clients.
In an interview, Efraim Halevy, a member of Black Cube’s advisory board,
defended the firm’s use of fake identities, saying businesses need these
tactics because “documents are becoming less prevalent” and the only evidence
is “human sources.” He stressed that creating “virtual” situations to gain
access and information have “to be done in a legal manner.”
[...]
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