Ex-Twitter Manager Convicted of Being Saudi Arabian Spy

This gives a new meaning to Twitter jail. Former Twitter manager Ahmad Abouammo was just sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison after he was convicted of spying for Saudi Arabia—and apparently receiving bribes to do so.

Abouammo gave a Saudi official Twitter user information “in exchange for a $42,000 watch and a pair of $100,000 wire transfers,” according to The Daily Caller. “Abouammo was found guilty of spying and money laundering on behalf of the Saudi Arabian government, and using his position at Twitter to acquire information about Twitter users for the Saudi Royal Family in August,” the outlet added. Little did Abouammo know when he received that expensive watch just how much he would be counting time.

Abouammo previously managed media for “high-profile [Twitter] users in the Middle East and North Africa” before he was arrested in Seattle in 2019. After his arrest, he was freed on bail until his trial in San Francisco, however. Prosecutor Eric Cheng said during the closing argument of Abouammo’s August trial that he was bribed as “a mole” with amounts of money equal to three times his Twitter salary. As Cheng put it, “We all know that kind of money is not for nothing.”