Former WSJ reporter says law firm used Indian hackers to sabotage his career - Reuters

WASHINGTON, Oct 15 (Reuters) - A erstwhile Wall Street Journal newsman is accusing a large U.S. instrumentality steadfast of having utilized mercenary hackers to oust him from his occupation and ruin his reputation.

In a lawsuit filed precocious Friday, Jay Solomon, the Journal’s erstwhile main overseas correspondent, said Philadelphia-based Dechert LLP worked with hackers from India to bargain emails betwixt him and 1 of his cardinal sources, Iranian American aviation enforcement Farhad Azima.

Solomon said the messages, which showed Azima floating the thought of the 2 of them going into concern together, were enactment into a dossier and circulated successful a palmy effort to get him fired.

The lawsuit, filed successful national tribunal successful Washington, said Dechert “wrongfully disclosed this dossier archetypal to Mr. Solomon’s employer, the Wall Street Journal, astatine its Washington DC bureau, and past to different media outlets successful an effort to malign and discredit him." It said the run “effectively caused Mr. Solomon to beryllium blackballed by the journalistic and publishing community.”

Dechert said successful an email that it disputed the assertion and would combat it successful court. Azima - who filed his ain lawsuit against Dechert connected Thursday successful New York - had nary contiguous comment. work much

Solomon’s suit is the latest successful a bid of ineligible actions that follows Reuters’ reporting astir hired hackers operating retired of India. In June, Reuters reported connected the activities of respective hack-for-hire shops, including Delhi area-companies BellTroX and CyberRoot, that were progressive successful a decade-long bid of espionage campaigns targeting thousands of people, including much than 1,000 lawyers astatine 108 antithetic instrumentality firms.

At the time, Reuters reported that radical who had go hacking targets portion progressive successful astatine slightest 7 antithetic lawsuits had each launched their ain inquiries into the cyberespionage campaign.

That fig has since grown.

Azima, Solomon’s erstwhile source, is among those who person gone to tribunal implicit the alleged hacking. His lawyers, similar Solomon’s, allege that Dechert worked with BellTroX, CyberRoot and a slew of backstage investigators to bargain his emails and people them to the web.

BellTroX and CyberRoot are not parties to the suit and could not instantly beryllium reached. Executives astatine some firms person antecedently denied wrongdoing.

Solomon and Azima allege that Dechert undertook the hack-and-leak cognition successful the involvement of its client, Sheikh Saud bin Saqr al-Qasimi, ruler of the Middle Eastern emirate of Ras Al Khaimah. Reuters has reported that lawyers for Ras Al Khaimah’s concern bureau – RAKIA – utilized the emails to assistance triumph a fraud suit filed against Azima successful London successful 2016.

Azima, who denies RAKIA’s fraud allegations, is trying to person the judgement thrown out.

In summation to being deployed successful court, the leaked emails besides made their mode to The Associated Press, which published 2 articles astir Azima successful June of 2017, including one that revealed the hose mogul had offered newsman Solomon a number involvement successful a institution helium was mounting up. The Journal fired Solomon soon earlier the AP’s communicative was published, citing ethical violations.

Solomon says helium ne'er took Azima up connected his connection oregon benefited financially from their relationship. In a first-person account of the ungraded published successful the Columbia Journalism Review successful 2018, the ex-journalist said helium ne'er pushed backmost connected Azima’s speech of concern opportunities due to the fact that helium was trying to wit a antheral who had been important to his reporting connected the Middle East. Solomon acknowledged “serious mistakes successful managing my root narration with Azima” including accepting stays connected the businessman's yacht. But helium said helium had been the people of an “incredibly effective” accusation operation.

The Journal, which is not a enactment to suit, declined comment. The AP did not instantly instrumentality a message.

Solomon said successful a connection Saturday that the hack-and-leak helium suffered was an illustration of "a inclination that's becoming a large menace to journalism and media, arsenic integer surveillance and hacking technologies go much blase and pervasive. This is simply a large menace to the state of the press."

Reporting by Raphael Satter; Editing by David Gregorio

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