Redazione RHC : 30 October 2025 12:39
Peter Williams, a former employee of the defense contractor, pleaded guilty in US federal court to two counts of theft of trade secrets, admitting to selling eight zero-day vulnerabilities to a Russian intermediary for millions of dollars in cryptocurrency.
According to the indictment , Williams, 39, who worked for a subsidiary of a company called Trenchant , illegally copied in-house software components created exclusively for the U.S. government and its allies over the course of three years. He resold these tools, designed for cyber operations, to a broker openly posing as a provider of exploits for various clients.
The investigation determined that the transactions occurred via encrypted communication channels from 2022 to this year. Williams entered into contracts with the intermediary, referred to in court documents as “Company No. 3,” and received payments in cryptocurrency, some of which he then spent on luxury goods.
During the hearing, prosecutors clarified that this designation refers to Operation Zero, a platform that bills itself as “the only official marketplace for purchasing zero-day vulnerabilities.”
Prosecutors cited a social media post from Operation Zero , in which the company offered millions of dollars for iOS and Android exploits , emphasizing that the end customer was a “non-NATO country.” This wording, according to the prosecution, matches the text of an ad published in 2023.
The agency reported that Williams had previously served in the Australian Signals Directorate and was then transferred to Trenchant, where he had access to software developed for national security cyber operations. It was during this time that he stole the source code and internal developments.
The Justice Department estimated the damage suffered by the defense contractor at $35 million, saying that the transfer of such sophisticated tools could have provided foreign actors with the means to conduct cyber attacks against “numerous unsuspecting victims.”
Each charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, or twice the amount of the illicit profits. According to federal guidelines, Judge Lauren Alikhan will impose a sentence of between seven and three months and nine years. Williams will also be ordered to pay a fine of up to $300,000 and pay $1.3 million in restitution. Williams has been placed under house arrest pending sentencing, scheduled for January.
The Justice Department called Williams’ actions ” a betrayal of the interests of the United States and his own employer,” emphasizing the deliberate nature of the crime. The Attorney General’s Office noted that international exploit traffickers are becoming “a new breed of arms dealer” and emphasized that investigating similar cases against insiders and intermediaries remains a priority for intelligence agencies.
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