Peter Williams, the former head of U.S. hacking tools maker L3Harris Trenchant, was sentenced to seven years in prison for stealing and selling his former company’s hacking and surveillance tools to a Russian firm.

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Peter Williams, former general manager of L3Harris Trenchant — a U.S. defense contractor division that develops hacking and surveillance tools including zero-day exploits for the U.S. government and Five Eyes allies — was sentenced to seven years in prison. He pleaded guilty to stealing and selling seven Trenchant trade secrets to a Russian broker identified as Operation Zero, earning $1.3 million in cryptocurrency between 2022 and 2025. The DOJ alleged the sold tools could have enabled access to millions of devices worldwide. The U.S. Treasury simultaneously announced sanctions against Operation Zero, which claims to resell acquired exploits exclusively to the Russian government.

Former L3Harris Trenchant boss jailed for selling hacking tools to Russian broker

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