US: Ex-tech worker pleads guilty to attempting to spy for Israel

A former employee of a company that helps websites deliver content to users pleaded guilty Tuesday to a charge of foreign economic espionage for providing trade secrets to an FBI agent posing as an Israeli intelligence officer.

Elliot Doxer, 43, admitted at a plea hearing in federal court in Boston to providing trade secrets from Cambridge-based Akamai Technologies Inc. over an 18-month period to the agent, the US Attorney's Office for Massachusetts said in a statement.

The prosecutor's office said Doxer believed the agent was an Israeli spy.

Doxer's attorney, Thomas J. Butters, said his client "has accepted the responsibility for what he did and he looks forward to his sentencing so that he could put this matter behind him."

Doxer accepted a plea deal that says he sent an email to the Israeli consulate in June 2006, while he worked in Akamai's finance department, offering to provide any information he had access to that would help Israel in exchange for money. Doxer said in plea documents that his main goal was "to help our homeland and our war against our enemies."

Israeli officials contacted US authorities about the offer. An FBI agent posed as an Israeli agent in September 2007 and arranged to use a "dead drop" location to exchange information with Doxer to avoid detection. From then until March 2009, Doxer visited the drop location at least 62 times and provided an extensive list of Akamai's customers and employees, including their full contact information and details of contracts, according to the documents.

He also described Akamai's physical and computer security systems to the agent and said he could travel to Israel and support special operations in his area if needed, according to the documents.

'Information was never in danger'

Akamai, which provides remote or "cloud-based" services for its clients, previously said it cooperated with the FBI.

"Because Akamai's information was disclosed only to an undercover agent from the beginning, the information was never in danger of actual exposure outside the company," the US Attorney's office said in a statement.

Authorities arrested Doxer in October 2010 and charged him with one count of wire fraud. That charge will be dismissed at the end of the case as part of the plea agreement.

Doxer faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison, a three-year term of supervised release and a $500,000 fine at his November 30 sentencing.

"We acknowledge the Government of Israel for their cooperation in this investigation, and underscore that the information does not allege that the government of Israel or anyone acting on its behalf committed any offense under US laws in this case," prosecutors said in a statement. "We would also like to acknowledge and thank Akamai Technologies Inc. for its assistance throughout all stages of the investigation and prosecution."

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