The company tasked with security at the Ecuadorian embassy in London is said to have spied on former President Rafael Correa in order to sell confidential information to his successor and political opponent Lenin Moreno.
This is indicated by the investigations of the Ecuadorian national court. It was found while analyzing the computer of David Morales, exmilitary and owner of Spanish security company UC Global, SL a disk named CIA Is Binder entitled: “North America/USA/CIA/Romeu/Brazil/Argentina/March 2018/Venegas Chamorro/Travels” which details Correa’s meetings with former Latin American presidents.
The espionage also involved meetings with Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, who was taking refuge in London. The findings on Correa’s portfolio and the monitoring of the meetings were conducted by experts appointed by Assange’s defense in court.
According to the document obtained by the Spanish newspaper El País, one of the recordings took place between March 18 and 24, 2018, when Correa was accompanied by an escort from UC Global, SL. No information is given about the content of the conversation monitored by the company and the value for the sale of the files.
Morales recorded videos and wrote reports some in English of Correa’s private meetings in the country and at his home in Brussels, where he settled after leaving the presidency.
One of these took place on November 17, 2017, when he wrote the report, titled “Brussel Meetings,” in which he detailed the meetings and talks the former president held at his home.
In the file description, he lists the serial numbers of his iPads and electronic computing devices. When Assange’s lawyers asked why these and other emails were in English, the former Marine replied that the email was in English.
When asked by the judge hearing the case, the exMarine said the goal was to “improve the English skills of his staff.”
The former President of Ecuador terminated his contract with the company in May 2019 when one of his bodyguards confessed that the former Spanish military and owner of the company had asked her to write reports on his meetings as well as his personal activities and policies.
According to the investigation, the extortion of some officials continued. The 4 GB stick, which the judiciary found in the safe at the company’s headquarters, contained images with intimate content of a member of Ecuador’s diplomatic career, which were probably used to coerce the employee.
“I want to use the pictures (…). To hang them.” “By the way (…) you have the report that was made on you (…), I think you destroyed it (…), right? (…), I think you destroyed it (…), didn’t you?” Morales said in an email to the diplomat.
At a hearing, Morales based his possession of the images on an accidental discovery during a “security analysis” of the person’s computer. The diplomat filed a lawsuit against Morales.
Assange and Correa’s espionage investigations are still pending in the Ecuadorian Supreme Court.
Morales is also embroiled in another spy lawsuit against the former president and founder of Wikileaks in 2019 when he owned security firm Undercover Global. He was arrested earlier this year while moving to a new apartment in Lisbon.