The EU Parliament’s Pegasus probe could put the nail in the coffin of the EU’s last available passport-for-cash: Malta’s gold passport scheme.
At its upcoming plenary session, the EU Parliament is set to approve the final report from the chamber’s Pegasus Committee, a special inquiry into the use of powerful spyware by European governments against political opponents, journalists, and activists.
The committee launched its work in 2021 following revelations by an international consortium of journalists that spyware had been used by governments around the world, including European ones, not only to track the activity of criminals and tap the secrets of other governments but also, allegedly, to spy on law-abiding members of civil society and domestic political opposition.
In addition to the use or alleged use of spyware by the Greek, Polish, Hungarian, and Spanish governments, the final report paints a picture of a global web of high-powered, well-connected, and wealthy individuals using Europe to facilitate their spyware businesses and, according to the committee, whitewash the sometimes-undemocratic uses of spyware and dealings with rogue or undemocratic states.
One key player, according to the report, is Malta, the only EU member state that still offers so-called “golden passports,” or citizenship based solely on having invested a large amount of money in the country.
“Malta seems to be a popular destination for some protagonists of the [global spyware] trade,” a report drafted by the EP’s Committee of Inquiry to investigate the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware (PEGA) has found.
“Several key figures from the spyware trade have registered a business in Malta or they have obtained Maltese passports, but it seems they do not actually reside there, nor do their companies seem to be active,” the committee added.
Peter Thiel
In 2022, the New York Times revealed that Peter Thiel, the German-born American billionaire, co-founder of Paypal along with Elon Musk, the first investor in Facebook (now Meta), and major donor to the Republican Party, had applied for Maltese citizenship.
This would be the fourth passport Thiel has acquired, to stack on top of his German, American, and Kiwi passports.
Thiel doesn’t have a direct link to a spyware company operating in Europe, but the parliamentary report notes that he applied for Maltese citizenship and hired former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz as a strategist shortly after Kurz announced his own partnership with Shalev Hulio, an Israeli citizen and former chief executive officer of the Israeli company NSO Group, the maker of Pegasus spyware. NSO announced in 2022 that Hulio had left—as part of a reorganisation and a change in strategy—to focus on sales of its spyware to NATO member states. Kurz touted the pair’s cyber security business as offering cyber defence tools to governments to protect national infrastructure from cyberattacks.
At the same time, Thiel is the investor in a discrete, small Silicon Valley company, Boldend, that has reportedly developed spyware able to hack Whatsapp (which Pegasus and other spyware is also capable of), which also has a sister company, Halcyon, dedicated to anti-ransomware software programs.
“In straddling both the offensive and defensive worlds, Boldend is positioning itself as one of a handful of “full spectrum cyber” businesses focused on protecting and attacking both government and corporate clients. A handful of startups in this niche field have emerged in recent years,” Forbes writes.
But back to Malta.
Tal Dilian
Another important figure in the spyware trade who is known to have obtained Maltese citizenship is Intellexa spyware consortium founder Tal Dilian. After a career in the Israeli Defence Force, Dillian acquired Maltese citizenship in 2017. His company, which promises to help governments crack “an encrypted multi-digital eco-system,” has offices in Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, and France. The Maltese news outlet The Shift also reports that he owns “what appears to be a shell company registered at an apparent fiduciary firm in Malta.” Intellexa sells the spyware Predator, used by the Greek government in a spying scandal that nearly brought it down in 2021.
Anatoly Hurgin
The most infamous name included in the report is that of Russian-Israeli citizen, former Israeli military engineer, and Pegasus collaborator Anatoly Hurgin. He acquired Maltese citizenship for himself and three family members in 2015 at a cost of €750,000.
The EU Parliament report notes specifically how, “At the time of his application for a Maltese passport, he was already under investigation for various crimes.”
In March 2023, his company Ability Ltd was ordered by the U.S. Securities Exchange to pay shareholders $12.2 million for misleading them and was nearly delisted from the NASDAQ. The company has also faced charges of fraud in Israel. At the same time, the company with unscrupulous practices is attempting to create a technology called the Unlimited Interception System (ULIN). Theoretically, it would be capable of hacking the global telecoms infrastructure known as SS7 to be able to intercept calls and texts and collect a target’s location with just a phone number.
According to various media reports, the Malta golden passport scheme is at an all-time low for applicants. There is no single reason, according to experts, but bad press about its links to government spying is unlikely to encourage the Maltese government to seek out more golden egg citizens.
