Former L3 boss Harris Trenchant has been jailed for selling hacking tools to a Russian middleman

Peter Williams, the former head of a US defense contractor, was sentenced Tuesday to seven years in prison for stealing and selling his former company’s hacking and surveillance tools to a Russian company.

Reporters with Bloomberg and Cyberscope Williams’ sentencing was first reported.

Williams was managing director of Trenchant, a division of defense contractor L3Harris that sells hacking and surveillance tools — commonly known as Zero days – To the US government and a select group of its top allies, known as the Five Eyes, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.

Last year, Williams, 39, an Australian citizen residing in Washington, D.C., He pleaded guilty to selling seven trade secrets to Trenchant To a Russian intermediary. While prosecutors did not name the company at the time, the US Treasury Department confirmed on Tuesday that the broker was Operation Zero, and… It announced the imposition of sanctions on the company.

Zero operation Provides millions of dollars For details about vulnerabilities in Android and iPhone devices, as well as… Messaging apps like Telegram. Zero operation Claims To resell the tools it acquires exclusively to the Russian government and local companies.

the The US Department of Justice claimed That the hacking tools sold by Williams could have allowed the end customer “potentially access millions of computers and devices around the world.” Williams, who previously worked for an Australian spy agency and the Australian military, admitted he made $1.3 million in cryptocurrency from sales between 2022 and 2025.

Lawyers for L3Harris and Williams did not immediately respond to a request for comment.