Black Cube

Black Cube

Type	Private Limited Company
Industry	Litigation Support Competitive Intelligence Risk Consulting
Founded	2010
Headquarters	Tel Aviv, Israel
Number of employees	75-100
Website	www.blackcube.com

Black Cube (in Hebrew: בלאק קיוב) is a private intelligence agency, which operates out of London, Paris and Tel Aviv,^[1] and is the trading name of BC Strategy Ltd.^[2] The company was founded in 2010^[3] by former Israeli intelligence officers^[4] Dan Zorella (in Hebrew: דן זורלא) and Avi Yanus (in Hebrew: אבי ינוס) and draws its manpower from elite and secretive Israeli intelligence units.^[5] The company’s personnel are known to maintain close ties to the Israeli government and intelligence agencies.

Black Cube’s primary field of operation is litigation support, where the company provides intelligence, evidence and strategic advisory services in multi-jurisdictional lawsuits.^[6]

Notable Projects

Beginning in 2011, Black Cube provided intelligence services to Vincent Tchenguiz in a number of cases, including Tchenguiz’s fight against the UK Serious Fraud Office,^[7] following his arrest as part of the SFO investigation into the collapse of the Icelandic bank Kaupthing.^[8] Black Cube analysed the network of relationships surrounding the collapse of the bank,^[9] and helped build a successful challenge to the SFO arrests and search warrants, causing the judge to declare the SFO’s actions unlawful in 2013. Following this investigation the SFO was ordered by the court to pay over £3m to Tchenguiz in 2014, and to issue a formal apology.^[10] The case file constructed by Black Cube is currently being used by Tchenguiz as the basis for a claim of £2.2bn against the accounting firm Grant Thornton.^[11]

In 2014, Black Cube were hired by Israeli businessman Nochi Dankner, to examine a court decision assigning control of IDB Holding Corp. Ltd. to Motti Ben Moshe.^[12] Black Cube investigated the sources of capital of Ben Moshe, revealing an ongoing investigation by German regulatory authorities into Ben Moshe’s company ExtraEnergy,^[13] and locating a witness who held evidence of money laundering and tax evasion by Ben Moshe.^[14]

In 2015, Black Cube assisted Taiwanese businessman Nobu Su, owner of the shipping company TMT, in his efforts to gain permission to appeal a 2014 judgement in favour of Lakatamia Shipping ^[15] in which Su was found personally liable for the amount of almost $47m.^[16] Black Cube delivered intelligence to Su’s legal team showing that 20% of the judgement amount was due to a company called Slagen Shipping, which had ceased operations at the time of the establishment of the claim, thereby rendering it unable to act as a claimant, both reducing the quantum of the judgement significantly, and causing the appeal to be granted.^[17]

In 2016, Black Cube was involved in exposing bribery and corruption in a set of Italian arbitrations between AmTrust and an Italian named Antonio Somma totalling €2bn. Somma admitted to the company's undercover agents that he could control the arbitration panels,^[18] and that he had an agreement to pay the chair of the arbitration panel 10% of any money they awarded him.^[19] Following Black Cube's findings, the arbitrator was dismissed and in July 2016, the two sides reached a settlement on the total of 60 million euros instead of the initial 2 billion euro claim.^[20]

In 2016, Black Cube was hired by Rami Levy, who is considered a champion of low prices in Israel,^[21] to verify his suspicions that he was being targeted by a rival chain in a negative media campaign. Black Cube provided Levy with evidence that the PR agent who worked for Levy's competitor, the Victory supermarket chain, exposed the negative campaign that they carried out aimed at damaging Levy's public reputation. Levy later used those materials in a lawsuit against his competitor.^[22]

Rumours and Controversies

In 2013, Black Cube filed a lawsuit in the UK against Vincent Tchenguiz for unpaid invoices and breach of contract. Concurrently, Tchenguiz filed a lawsuit in Israel against Black Cube, alleging fraudulent invoices, an allegation denied by Black Cube.^[23] Both lawsuits were dropped in a settlement agreement, the details of which are undisclosed.^[24]

During the course of working with Nochi Dankner in the 2014 court case, the witness provided by Black Cube was publicly accused by Ben Moshe’s legal team of fabricating evidence and providing false testimony.^[25] A court-admissible polygraph test found the witness to be telling the truth.^[26]

In April 2016, two of the company employees were arrested in Bucharest on suspicions of spying, phishing and cyber harassing the chief prosecutor of the Romanian National Anticorruption Directorate, Laura Codruța Kövesi and people close to her. The company denies any wrongdoing saying that they were working under contract from the highest political powers in Bucharest and that "all of Black Cube’s employees follow local law to the letter, and the allegations against them are unfounded and untrue".^[27]

International Advisory Board

Meir Dagan - Former head of Mossad, Honorary President of the Board.^[28]

Professor Asher Tishler - President of the College of Management Academic Studies^[29]

Brigadier General Mati Leshem^[30] - Recipient of the 1997 Israel Defence Prize^[31]

Doron Arbelli - Former director of the Israeli Tax Authority^[32]

Paul Reyniers^[33] - Former partner at Price Waterhouse and author of GARP (Generally Accepted Risk Principles)^[34]

Itiel Maayan - Member of Microsoft's Customer Advisory Board^[35]

Golan Malka^[36] - Former Vice President Marketing and Business Development of NICE Systems^[37]

References