The engineer and former American Superconductor Corp. employee who is at the center of AMSC’s claims of corporate espionage by Sinovel Wind Group Co. Ltd. has pleaded guilty on charges of passing AMSC secrets to the Chinese company.
Dejan Karabasevic, 38, was sentenced to one year in jail and two years probation. Formerly employed by AMSC’s Austrian subsidiary, Karabasevic also was ordered by the court in Klagenfurt, Austria, to pay roughly $270,000 in damages to AMSC.
Walk into a NASCAR garage on any given Friday at the racetrack and it’s sure to be teeming with fans clad in T-shirts and ball caps supporting their favorite driver. As crews work on cars, the fans mill about, seeking autographs and taking pictures of anything and everything. If they want, they’re free to walk up to their favorite driver’s car and snap photo after photo.
It’s part of NASCAR’s effort to bring fans closer to the sport. Inadvertently, it allows teams to go undercover and gain an edge.
A Tredyffrin Township man has been accused of cyber spying on his estranged wife.
Jay Anthony Ciccarone, 39, was charged Monday night with unlawful use of a computer and related offenses. He allegedly installed “Web Watcher,” a spyware package, on the woman’s computer, Tredyffrin Township police said.
“As far as I’m concerned, he was really behaving like a stalker,” Sgt. John R. Bailey said. “He violated her trust and her privacy. . . . It seemed like a big chess game to him.”
Police said the investigation began a year ago when the woman, who was in the midst of divorce proceedings with Ciccarone, contacted police because Ciccarone appeared to be monitoring her daily activities.
A forensic examination of the woman’s computer revealed the presence of the spying program, which “works by recording all manner of activity on the computer, including keystroke logging, capturing e-mail and Internet activity,” the criminal complaint said.
The complaint said the program “is designed to be completely ‘stealthed,’ meaning it is automatically hidden from everyone except the people authorized to see it.”
This month, investigators received confirmation from Awareness Technologies, a California company that sells the program, that the software had been purchased by Ciccarone, the complaint said.
Ciccarone, who previously worked in sales for Philly.com, was arraigned Monday night in District Court and released after posting $75,000 cash bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Friday.
Ciccarone filed for divorce in April 2010, a proceeding that has not yet been finalized, according to court records.
Contact staff writer Kathleen Brady Shea at 610-696-3815, kbrady [at] phillynews [dot] com, or @brandywinebits on Twitter. Read her blog, “Chester County Inbox,” at www.philly.com/chescoinbox.
BEIRUT: An Egyptian man living in Lebanon has confessed to spying for Israel after he and his Lebanese wife were arrested over the weekend.
The couple, who have lived in Hasbaya, southeast Lebanon for 20 years according to As-Safir newspaper, had been under surveillance for some time, a statement from the Internal Security Forces said Monday.
The man, identified by As-Safir as Ibrahim S., confessed to working with Israeli intelligence since 1999, according to the ISF statement, and said he had entered Israel three times.
He also confessed that his wife knew he had been working with Israeli intelligence.
Authorities discovered what they said were spying and communication devices, including a cellphone with an Israeli SIM card inside Ibrahim’s house.
As-Safir reported Monday that Ibrahim has worked at several laundries in Hasbaya, Beirut and border towns.
They said Ibrahim crossed into Israel during the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon and worked there over a substantial period of time.
According to Lebanese sources, the suspect, identified as Ibrahim S., has confessed to spying for Tel Aviv and that sophisticated espionage equipments, including a satellite device and an Israeli SIM card, were found in his apartment.
Ibrahim’s wife, a Lebanese national, was also arrested on suspicion of involvement in his espionage activities against Beirut.
Ibrahim, 55, has lived in Hasbaya, southeast Lebanon, for the past 20 years. He was apprehended on Saturday and is currently under interrogation.
Security sources said Ibrahim crossed into Israel during the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon and worked there for years.
In April 2009, Lebanon, which has technically been in a state of war with Israel, launched a nationwide crackdown on Israeli spy cells arresting nearly 100 people, including members of the country’s security forces and telecommunications personnel, on suspicion of espionage for Mossad.
A number of the suspects have admitted to their role in helping Israel identify targets inside Lebanon, mostly belonging to Hezbollah, which Tel Aviv heavily bombed during its 2006 war against the country.
The most high-profile arrest came in August after Fayez Karam, a former army general and Christian Party politician, was charged with spying for Israel.
Karam, who was in charge of the Lebanese army’s anti-terrorism and counter-espionage unit in the 1980s, has been accused of meeting Mossad agents outside Lebanon and giving them information in exchange for money and weapons.
If convicted, the spies will face life sentences with hard labor. Should they be found guilty of contributing to the loss of Lebanese lives, the agents will face the capital punishment.
