IT worker gave secrets to FBI agent posing as Israeli spy

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By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
An American employee of a major information technology firm has pled guilty to providing inside economic information about his employer to an undercover FBI agent posing as an Israeli intelligence officer. Federal prosecutors at the Office for the US Attorney in the state of Massachusetts have indicted Elliot Doxer, 42, from Brooklyn, New York (see previous intelNews coverage here). Until last August, Doxer worked in the finance department of Akamai Technologies, Inc., an Internet content delivery company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. According to the indictment, in June of 2006, Doxer voluntarily contacted the consulate of Israel in Boston via email, offering to provide Israeli intelligence officers with inside information about Akamai. He offered to do this, he said, in order “to help our homeland [presumably Israel] and our war against our enemies”. He also requested a $3,000 compensation for his services. But Israeli consular officials forwarded his email to the FBI. The latter sent an undercover agent to contact Doxer, posing as an Israeli intelligence operative. Believing that the FBI agent was a spy for Israel, Doxer began giving him classified information on a routine basis, an arrangement that lasted until March of 2009. During these 18 months, Doxer gave inside information —including details of Akamai’s computer and physical security systems— to his FBI handler at least 62 times, according to prosecutors. He also boasted that he would gladly travel to Israel to share his expertise and participate in “special operations”. Doxer is now facing espionage charges that carry a maximum jail sentence of 15 years and a $500,000 fine. IntelNews readers may remember a similar case in recent times, namely that of Stewart David Nozette, an American scientist at NASA, who in 2009 provided government secrets to an FBI agent posing as an officer of Israeli intelligence agency Mossad.