US Lawyer Alleges UK Intelligence Firm Funded Hacking Campaign
A New York-based attorney is seeking to nullify a prior legal ruling, claiming his case was compromised by illicit surveillance allegedly paid for by a British intelligence company.
In a motion filed last Thursday in federal court in Manhattan, Daniel Feldman accused the UK investigations firm Vantage Intelligence of financially backing hackers who intercepted confidential discussions between him and his legal team during a lawsuit that unfolded between 2016 and 2018.
At the time, Feldman was defending himself against accusations from companies linked to the dissolved Russian oil conglomerate Yukos. He contends that Vantage’s actions tilted the proceedings unfairly in their favor.
Although Feldman was ultimately found liable in 2019 for violating fiduciary responsibilities to certain Yukos-affiliated firms, the jury awarded just $5 in damages and found no actual harm. His law license was later suspended for one year.
He now argues the trial was irreparably influenced by cyber intrusions, which justifies vacating the verdict.
Efforts to reach representatives of the Yukos-affiliated entities, located in the British Virgin Islands and the Netherlands, were unsuccessful. U.S. lawyers for those entities did not respond to multiple inquiries.
Vantage Intelligence redirected questions to an attorney who also failed to respond. The firm attracted attention in 2023 when Erik Prince—founder of Blackwater and associate of former President Donald Trump—was appointed to its advisory board.
However, Feldman’s motion does not mention Prince, nor is he accused of involvement. Messages to Prince and his lawyer went unanswered.
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Feldman’s filing follows recent investigations from 2022 and 2023, which revealed how mercenary hackers, often based in India, had been employed to infiltrate parties in legal disputes worldwide. Feldman was among thousands identified as victims of this activity.
His filing notes that U.S. prosecutors in Manhattan informed him privately that his email had been accessed without permission prior to the 2023 sentencing of Aviram Azari, an Israeli private investigator known for operating in the hack-for-hire space.
The Justice Department declined to comment, and Azari—who has since returned to Israel—did not reply to inquiries. A former associate told Reuters that Azari “refuses to discuss anything related to his previous conviction.”
According to Feldman, Azari hired Indian operatives on behalf of Vantage and billed the company approximately 357,000 euros (about $404,800) for the job. Feldman believes this undermined his right to a fair trial.
“Email was my primary means of communication with my attorneys,” Feldman stated. “It belies common sense that it did not create an unfair advantage for the plaintiffs.”
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