TEL AVIV - Local prosecutors submitted Thursday indictments to the district court against nine private investigators involved in the “Trojan Horse” business espionage case.
The nine are Roni Barhom, Eli Pelosof, Avraham Balili, Tzvi Krochmal, Asaf Zolotovsky, Chaim Zissman, Eyal Abramovitch, Alex Weinstein and Niv Chai.
The indicted worked for the detection agencies Pelosof-Balili, Krochmal Special Investigations and Modi’in Ezrachi Investigations.
The indictment includes charges of fraud, illegal wiretapping, invasion of privacy, criminal conspiracy, and spreading computer viruses.
According to prosecutors, the espionage network had three concentric circles. The first included the London-based couple Michael and Ruth Efrati, who authored the invasive “Trojan Horse” computer program.
The second included the nine private investigators currently indicted, and in the third circle were the businesses that demanded inside information on their competitors or other private individuals.
According to prosecutors, the indicted served as a link between the business customers and the designers of the spy program. The “Trojan Horse” allowed detectives to infiltrate targeted computers and steal the information – files and real-time screen images – they contained.
Emails and histories of Internet traffic also landed in the hands of private detectives.
Asking for time
Tzion Amir, who represents four detectives, said, “The indictment spans more than 50 pages. It is unprecedented in its scope, and we’ll have to ask the court to push off the proceedings so we can manage all of the investigative material.”
In the meantime, he said, he hoped that his clients would be released from jail.
