Jeff Bezos was hacked by the Saudis, according to his investigator

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Remember when almost two months ago, Jeff Bezos wrote a pretty revealing blog post on Medium in which he said the National Enquirer was blackmailing him?

Well, not one to take anything laying down, the richest man in the world hired a top-flight investigator firm to find out who was behind the hacked, private photos. That investigation is now over, with the firm hired pointing the finger of blame at the Saudis.

Gavin de Becker “protects some of the most influential people on the planet,” so when you hire his firm, you expect your wad to find its target. While AMI (the National Enquirer‘s parent company) still claims that Michael Sanchez (the brother of Bezos’ lover, Lauren) was the only source of the information it held, de Becker’s investigators found otherwise.

For a start, Sanchez told Page Six that text messages had already been viewed by the Enquirer when it contacted him to get more details about the affair. That means another, prior source, and de Becker’s company firmly believes that Saudi Arabia was that source, based on all the knowledge on the nation’s motivations, links to AMI, and prior methods.

That investigation also casts new light on an eight-page contract that AMI sent as part of the extortion/blackmail attempt that Bezos outlined in his Medium post.

Things that needed to be included in any public statement made by Bezos (or on his behalf) included things like: “any form of electronic eavesdropping or hacking in their news-gathering process,” that the AMI story wasn’t “instigated, dictated or influenced in any manner by external forces, political or otherwise,” while also prohibiting de Becker or Bezos making any statements to law enforcement.

Some of the specific phrasing is very odd. No mention of hacking was made by de Becker publicly, and the “external forces” suggests that someone outside of AMI was involved, otherwise, why mention it?

Our investigators and several experts concluded with high confidence that the Saudis had access to Bezos’ phone, and gained private information. As of today, it is unclear to what degree, if any, AMI was aware of the details.

Expect to hear more about this in the coming months, as de Becker has turned over all his findings to federal officials. For their part, AMI still insists it “acted lawfully” and the Saudis have categorically denied any involvement in the matter.

What do you think? Surprised by the results of the investigation regarding Jeff Bezos? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.