Defense Contractor Employee Arrested for Selling 8 Zero Days to Russian Dealer
A 39-year-old Australian man who was employed by US contractor L3Harris has been sentenced to just over seven years in prison for selling eight zero-day items to a Russian trader who exploited Operation Zero for millions of dollars.
Peter Williams pleaded guilty to two counts of theft of trade secrets in October 2025. In addition to the prison sentence, Williams was ordered to serve three years of supervised release with special conditions, and to forfeit illegal proceeds, including real estate, clothing, jewelry, and luxury watches, purchased with cryptocurrency payments he received from sales.
The case’s connection to Operation Zero was revealed by cyber security reporter Kim Zetter late last year. The nature of the exploit is currently unclear. But a sentencing memorandum published earlier this month revealed that these tools “could have been used against any type of victim, civilian or military around the world, and engaged in all types of crimes from cyber fraud, theft, and ransomware, to direct espionage and offensive cyber operations against military targets.”
“Williams abused his major role in American defense contracting to enrich himself at the expense of the United States and his employer,” said Assistant National Security Attorney John A. Eisenberg. “The tools he brought down were meant to protect this nation; instead, he auctioned them off to Russian thugs.”
According to U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro for the District of Columbia, Williams sold trade secrets for up to $4 million. The exploit tools would have allowed Russia to access millions of digital devices, Pirro added.
Eight of the cyber-exploited thefts occurred in a three-year period between 2022 and 2025. Zero day transactions are intended for sale only to the US government and select partners. The actions are estimated to have cost L3Harris $35 million in financial losses.
The US State Department, in parallel, announced the designation of Operation Zero (also known as Matrix LLC), together with Sergey Sergeyevich Zelenyuk and Special Technology Services LLC FZ (STS), under the Intellectual Property Protection Act (PAIPA) regarding the theft of trade secrets.
Zelenyuk is Russian and is the director and owner of Operation Zero. He also established STS in the UAE to conduct business with various countries in Asia and the Middle East and may face US sanctions imposed on Russian bank accounts.
The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) also indicted Zelenyuk, Operation Zero, STS, and four other individuals associated with businesses for acquiring and distributing cyber tools that pose a threat to US national security. According to the Treasury Department, Operation Zero allegedly sold the equipment recovered from Williams to at least one unauthorized user.
Operation Zero donated up to $4 million in Telegram exploits and $20 million in tools that can be used to hack into Android and iPhone devices. The exploit broker is believed to have engaged in efforts to recruit hackers to support his operations and develop business relationships with foreign intelligence agencies through social media. It has been in effect since at least 2021.
“Zelenyuk and Operation Zero stated that they will only sell the items they receive to customers from non-NATO countries. Zelenyuk, through Operation Zero, wanted to sell to foreign intelligence,” said the Ministry of Finance.
“Zelenyuk and Operation Zero also sought to develop other cyber intelligence programs, including spyware and methods to extract personally identifiable information and other sensitive information uploaded by users of artificial intelligence applications such as large-scale language models.”
Names of other authorized persons and organizations are listed below –
- Marina Evgenyevna Vasanovich, assistant Zelenyuk
- Azizjon Makhmudovich Mamashoyev and Oleg Vyacheslavovich Kucherov, for having a professional relationship with Operation Zero (Kucherov is suspected of being a member of the TrickBot gang)
- Advance Security Solutions, a brokerage firm founded by Mamashoyev that offers the benefits of using software built in the US.
“Peter Williams stole a US defense contractor’s trade secrets about highly sensitive cyber capabilities and sold them to a vendor whose clients included the Russian government, putting our national security and countless potential victims at risk,” said Senior Director Roman Rozhavsky of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Counterintelligence and Espionage Division.
“Let this be a clear warning to all who think of putting selfishness in the country: if you betray your position of trust and sell sensitive American technology to our foreign enemies, the FBI will not rest until you are brought to justice.”
