In the face of the ongoing investigator and hacker-for-hire warfare between ENRC-funded camps and those led by lawyer Neil Gerrard, Dechert, and the Ras Al Khaimah emirate, Indian cyber intelligence firm CyberRoot is forging its own way. It wants to get rid of any financial proof that connects it to the affair.
As hacking allegations against it rise, CyberRoot responds in Indian courts.
The number of hacking accusations levelled against CyberRoot in Europe and the United States is growing, and Intelligence Online learns that the Indian cyber-education corporation is also working hard to defend itself in India. It is attempting to patch the leaks that have given it a starring position in the mammoth hacking-for-hire case that has shaken the courts of the United Kingdom, the United States, France, and Switzerland.
A complicated network of judicial battles
A team comprised of Kazakh mining giant ENRC (which has funded former aviation broker FarhadAzima’s legal costs), British law firm Diligence, private investigator Jonas Rey, and ex-hacker-for-hire Aditya Jain has accused CyberRoot of carrying out hacks on behalf of a camp comprised of law firm Dechert, his former partner Neil Gerrard, the Ras Al Khaimah emirate via its sovereign wealth fund Ras al
Notwithstanding the now abundant data to the contrary, the corporation has denied any hacking since day one. The business also denies receiving a recent visit from the Indian intelligence service, the Research & Analysis Wing (R&AW), as we previously reported (IO, 24/11/22). Meanwhile, CyberRoot has conducted its own investigation and filed a case in Delhi for unauthorised access to confidential bank statements. The company has also accused a consultant, Ravi Rastogi, of stealing some of its banking data from Kotak Mahindra Bank and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), with the assistance of some employees of both institutions. In court, Kotak confirmed that some of its workers had access to the group’s banking data.
Consultant who keeps a modest profile
Rastogi is suspected of acting on behalf of Aditya Jain, a former hacker for hire who joined Azima’s camp for a price and is monitored by the team’s private investigator, Swiss national Jonas Rey (IO, 04/11/21, IO, 10/03/21).
CyberRoot is also attempting to trace the whole chain of command that led to the breach with the assistance of Delhi police.
The importance of leaks in court proceedings
Additional detail regarding the leak is critical because it could help CyberRoot to remove itself from the massive ENRC/Azima and Neil Gerrard case: the bank data stated by CyberRoot as stolen is central to Azima’s team’s complaint. The documents, which include photos of the company’s printed accounts and show numerous payments made to CyberRoot by private investigator Nick del Rosso’s company Vital Management Services, which is accused of commissioning the hacking of ex-broker Azima on behalf of Rakia’s lawyer Neil Gerrard, were obtained by Intelligence Online.
However, in one section of the proceedings against Del Rosso brought before the North Carolina court by Stokoe Partnership’s lawyer HaralambosTsiattalou, who is representing Azima (IO, 10/05/21), Tsiattalou presents this data as coming from a whistleblower, a convenient way to qualify and use documents whose legality is difficult to prove. Although rejecting the reality of the revealed bank traces, which link the company to Nick del Rosso, CyberRoot expects that by establishing that they were obtained unlawfully, they will now be removed from the case, allowing the company to return to a condition of relative discretion.
If such documents are deleted from the case, Azima’s defence will have jeopardised the entire chain of command between the hackers and the sponsors, which has been developed in recent months.