Chaia Services Ltd
British Virgin Islands company; former Discover-Tech shareholder named in a disputed 2024 spyware reseller agreement
| Chaia Services Ltd
| |
|---|---|
| Type | Private company (British Virgin Islands) |
| Headquarters | British Virgin Islands (registered) |
Chaia Services Ltd is a company registered in the British Virgin Islands. According to Citizen Lab, it was a shareholder of the Israeli advertising-technology firm Discover-Tech from 2020 until March 2026.[1] In March 2024 Haaretz reported that a disputed reseller agreement, attached to an anonymous complaint about an alleged unlicensed spyware sale, named Chaia Services Ltd as the company through which the technology was sold. The signature of the director named on that agreement is said by her lawyer to be forged, and Intellexa has denied any commercial ties with Chaia.[2]
British Virgin Islands company records are not public, and Citizen Lab said it could not access Chaia's corporate registration information.[1]
Citizen Lab reported, from Israeli company records, that from April 2020 the shareholders of Discover-Tech included Dekel Boni, Guy Lants, Yaniv Basil, Zfanya Leib, Sergei Bartashevich and Chaia Services Ltd. Eric Banoun sat on Discover-Tech's board from 2020 to January 2025, and Chaia ceased to be a shareholder in March 2026. Citizen Lab concluded that, "based on the links to Eric Banoun and Chaia Services Ltd.", Discover-Tech "was linked to the spyware industry for almost six years".[1]
Citizen Lab linked Chaia to Sara Hamou, the former business manager of Intellexa, solely on the strength of the 2024 Haaretz report described below.[1]
The 2024 reseller agreement
On 2 March 2024 Haaretz published an investigation by Gur Megiddo of TheMarker into an anonymous complaint sent on 8 January 2024 to Israeli and US export-control authorities. The complaint alleged that Eric Banoun and Maria Pulera had sold spyware without permits to a private company allegedly acting as a front for the Egyptian government. A reseller agreement attached to it named Chaia Services Ltd, "which is incorporated in the British Virgin Islands", as the company under whose auspices the technology was sold.[2]
According to that reseller agreement reported by Haaretz, whose signature her lawyer says is forged, Sara Hamou, the former wife of Tal Dilian, was a Chaia director. Eric Banoun and Maria Pulera also say her signature is a forgery, and Hamou's lawyer told TheMarker that she never signed the agreement. Haaretz said the alleged connection to Intellexa rested on this one detail, "whose veracity is also in doubt", and that "even if it were proved that her signature on the agreement involving Chaia happens to be authentic, that in itself is not proof of her former husband's involvement", because Hamou had acted as a director on behalf of clients and "may also indicate that she was only providing services to Chaia's beneficial owners, whoever they may be".[2]
Intellexa told TheMarker: "This company does not now have, and has never had, commercial ties with Chaia Services Ltd." Banoun said: "The allegations in this article are unfounded and baseless. The majority of the claims are based on material, most of which is fake, that was acquired fraudulently and originates with a person with a proven criminal record." Banoun and Pulera told the paper that the complaint had been invented by blackmailers, and Haaretz reported that the day before it was sent, Tamer Esmat Qursha had emailed Banoun demanding $3 million and threatening to expose him. Haaretz also said that the claim that the end client was the Egyptian government "is not backed up by anything".[2]
Similarly named entities
Citizen Lab reported several entities with similar names, without establishing that they are connected to Chaia Services Ltd:[1]
- Chaia Services Tech LLC, a US company of which Eric Banoun was listed as a director, and which Citizen Lab said was dissolved in 2025.[1] OpenCorporates lists it as a Wyoming limited liability company, number 2024-001409252, with a registered address at 30 N Gould St Ste R, Sheridan, WY 82801, and status "Inactive – Administratively Dissolved (Tax)".[3]
- "Chaia Services", named in the contact details of a 2024 version of the website of Tekma, an advertising-data company whose site Citizen Lab found had been published by the same entity as the Discover-Tech and Intelos websites.[1]
- "Chaia Ltd", at "13&15 GR. Afxentiou Street, Mesa Geitonia Limassol", named in the contact details of an older Tekma website.[1]
See also
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Bill Marczak et al., How Discover-Tech Turned Targeted Ads Into a Pipeline for Zero-Click Mercenary Spyware, Citizen Lab, 15 October 2026, accessed 22 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Gur Megiddo, 'Send $3 Million or I'll Expose You': A Businessman, a Filmmaker and an Alleged Israeli Spyware Deal Gone Awry, Haaretz (English edition of a TheMarker investigation), 2 March 2024 (archived copy), accessed 22 October 2026.
- ↑ OpenCorporates, CHAIA SERVICES TECH LLC (Wyoming, company number 2024-001409252), accessed 22 October 2026.