The US government has accused a former executive at defense contractor L3Harris of stealing trade secrets and selling them to a buyer in Russia, according to court documents seen by TechCrunch.
On October 14, the Department of Justice accused Peter Williams of stealing eight trade secrets from two unnamed companies. The Doj made allegations in a “Criminal Information”, namely, like an explanationrefers to a typical charge of a punishable crime.
The Document It did not specify Williams’ relationship with the two companies, list the types of trade secrets, or name the Russians who bought them.
TechCerm has confirmed that the Williams mentioned in the document, which did not specify where he worked, is a former general manager at Trenchant who developed hacking and surveillance tools for western governments, including the United States.
Williams became the General Manager of Trenchant on October 23, 2024, and he will work at Trenchant until August 21, 2025. Every UK business recordsSee rank-. Williams, a 39-year-old Australian citizen, lives in Washington DC, according to court documents.
Four former Trenchant employees previously told TechCrunch that Williams, known at the company as “Doogie,” had been arrested.
A spokesperson for the justice department confirmed to TechCrunch on Thursday that Williams is currently out of federal custody.
The Doj accused Williams of stealing seven trade secrets between April 2022 and 2025 and eighteen trades between June 6 and 625.
According to the criminal information document, the US Government alleges Williams made $1.3 million for the sale of trade secrets. For that reason, the Doj is looking to get rid of Williams’ property that came from the accused’s criminal activities.
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A spokesperson for L3Harris did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
Williams Williams’ attorney John Rowley declined to comment when contacted by TechCrunch on Thursday.
The FBI court, and the District Court for the District of Columbia, where Williams’, did not respond to multiple requests for comment on Thursday. (The US government has been shut down since October 1 following a lapse in federal funding.)
When reached by TechCrunch in September about Williams, the FBI declined to comment. The director of the Australian partnership declined to comment because it was a matter for law enforcement.
A plea and abduction hearing is scheduled for October 29 in Washington DC
In 2018, l3harris acquired Azimuth and Linchpin Labs, Two younger sisters who developed Zero-Day, which was later merged into trenchant. The two companies sold their hacking tools to the so-called five eyes, an intelligence-sharing group made up of the governments of the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
Earlier this week techCrunch reported exclusivelyciting four former Trenchant employees, that the company is investigating the leak of its hacking tool.
A former exploit developer at Trenchant told Techcrunch that he was suspicious of the tool leak, but denied involvement.
The former developer said that Trenchant appointed him as a scapegoat for the leak of tools that could exploit vulnerabilities in Google Chrome, which he claimed did not have access to the development of iOS exploits. Three former employees said Trenchant was complicit in which employees gained access to the platform they worked on.
Source Corrouborated the developer’s account, and said that the company wrongly accused the former employee.
It was not immediately clear if this year’s leak investigation at Trenchant was related to the federal charges against Williams.