Jeb Bush, former Florida governor, scion of the Bush family, and failed presidential candidate once considered helping sell NSO Group spyware to US federal law enforcement agencies.
bosch private equity firm, Finback Investment Partnersconsidered buying a 5 percent stake in a holding company that was used to sell NSO’s surveillance products within the US, the Financial Times reports. mentioned. This holding company, Gideon Cyber Systems, is primarily owned by Novalpina Capital, another private equity firm that also happens to own the NSO Group.
If the deal went through, Bush would have made media appearances to promote NSO and its products — “targeted press engagements” as well as “interactions with strategic clients,” according to the Financial Times — and would have been tasked with communicating with potential buyers, namely federal agencies such as the FBI. FBI and CIA. Discussions between Finback and Novalpina took place in 2020, but the deal ultimately went nowhere.
NSO is a strange company for Bosch that he wanted to be involved with. For years, the Israeli spyware seller has suffered from a seemingly endless series of scandals that have damaged his reputation and threatened him with legal liability. In 2021, after the violations caused by the company’s products were renewed, so was NSO Officially blacklisted by the US government, which placed it on a list of foreign companies that cannot receive US investments without express government approval.
Despite the ban, NSO supporters continued their bid to create a market for company services. Apparently, supporters of the Finback Deal hoped that Bush’s name and political connections would help them rehabilitate NSO’s tarnished reputation.
After all, Jeb is a very powerful business partner – especially if you want to sell your products to government agencies. Former Governor of Florida and failed US presidential candidate, Jeb’s father was also Director of the CIA and later President of the United States; His brother was also president, though he is mostly remembered for having started Lots of wars And He had difficulty speaking. In other words, Jeb could have been someone who could have helped NSO get back on its feet and re-establish its legitimacy.
In addition to Bush, another man is said to have been a prominent figure in the potential deal: Jack Oliver, a senior advisor at Palantir, the CIA-backed defense contractor that sells surveillance tools, founded by tech giant and Republican megastar Peter Thiel. Finback had the chance to win an additional 5 percent ownership in Gideon if Bush and Oliver can generate up to $50 million in new sales, the Financial Times reports.