Dan Zorella

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Dan Zorella

Born July 1983[1]
Nationality Israeli
Occupation Private intelligence executive
Known for Co-founder and chief executive of Black Cube; suspended sentence in Romania, 2022; named by Slovenia's intelligence agency, 2026

Dan Zorella is an Israeli former military intelligence officer who co-founded the private intelligence firm Black Cube (Haaretz gives 2010; company registration and other reporting give 2011) and runs it as chief executive. He accepted a suspended prison sentence in Romania in 2022 over the firm's 2016 operation against the anti-corruption prosecutor Laura Codruța Kövesi, and in 2026 Slovenia's intelligence agency named him in connection with alleged interference in that country's election.

Dan Zorella (דן זורלא; Companies House date of birth July 1983)[1] founded Black Cube with Avi Yanus; Haaretz dates the founding to 2010 and says the two met while studying at the Technion, while company registration and other reporting give 2011. He has been its main shareholder from the start.[2][3] In the division of labour described by the Daily Telegraph in 2024, he heads the firm's intelligence operations, while Yanus runs the financial and legal side and the London office.[4] He has also represented the firm in contacts with governments and politicians. He met an Israeli minister in 2024 about a possible operation against a US student group, and he was one of three Black Cube representatives whom Slovenia's intelligence agency linked to a December 2025 visit to the headquarters of the opposition party SDS.[5][6]

Background

According to Globes, Zorella comes from Haifa and served in an elite unit of IDF Military Intelligence (Aman). He met Yanus while both were studying for a BA in management and economics at the Technion, and he went on to an MBA at Tel Aviv University. Haaretz of August 2019 likewise says Black Cube was founded in 2010 by Zorella and Yanus, who met during studies at the Technion.[7][2] The Telegraph also describes him as a veteran of "an elite military intelligence unit within the Israel Defense Forces".[4] A 2026 report by the Slovenian weekly Mladina instead calls him a veteran of the IDF's "special operations unit" and a "former high-ranking officer".[8] None of these sources names the unit, and none places him in Unit 8200.

A business associate quoted by Globes in 2014 called him a "brilliant guy with a quick grasp and sharp analytical ability".[3] According to a 2013 lawsuit, in 2010 he was working for a web-intelligence firm, Businessscope, in which a company of Vincent Tchenguiz held a stake.[9]

Career timeline

# Date Event Source
1 2010 Meets Vincent Tchenguiz while working for Businessscope (according to a 2013 lawsuit by Tchenguiz's company Vincos) [9]
2 7 March 2011 Registers Zorella Ltd in Tel Aviv, later renamed B.C. Strategy Ltd, the Black Cube parent company. Three days later the Serious Fraud Office raids Tchenguiz, who becomes the firm's first major client [9][10]
3 2013 Named as a defendant, with Yanus and the two Black Cube companies, in Vincos Ltd's Tel Aviv suit. The cross-claims settle in April 2013 [9][11]
4 2014 Described by Globes as the main shareholder of B.C. Strategy Ltd, during the firm's work for Nochi Dankner against Moti Ben-Moshe [3]
5 2016 Black Cube's Romania operation against Laura Codruța Kövesi. Two employees are arrested in Bucharest in April. Zorella is questioned in Israel at Romania's request [7][12]
6 6 April 2016 Notified as a person with significant control of B.C. Strategy UK Ltd (more than 50 but less than 75 per cent of shares and votes, as a member of a firm). He is not a director (see The British filing) [1]
7 2018 Globes reports that Black Cube, "owned by Dan Zorella and Dr. Avi Yanus", traced the assets of the late Motti Zisser's family for Bank Hapoalim [13]
8 June 2019 Named as chief executive in coverage of Channel 12's Uvda investigation, which reported operations against Ofra Strauss and work for Hot, Bezeq and Israel Chemicals [14]
9 March 2022 Convicted by the Bucharest Tribunal on a plea agreement, in absentia, with Yanus and Gal Farchi. Two years and eleven months, suspended [15][12]
10 March 2024 Hosts a Daily Telegraph reporter at the firm's Tel Aviv offices. The paper puts the staff at about 150, including 30 to 40 field agents [4]
11 Late June 2024 Meets Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli, with Giora Eiland (advisory-board chairman), about a possible probe of Students for Justice in Palestine; never got a green light [5][16]
12 10–11 December 2025 According to Slovenia's SOVA, among three Black Cube representatives linked to a visit to the SDS headquarters in Ljubljana [6]
13 March 2026 Named by SOVA (20 March). Slovenia's state secretary for national security says Zorella was in a team that spent time on the street of the SDS headquarters on 11 December [6][17]

The British filing

He is not an officer of B.C. Strategy UK Ltd. The persons-with-significant-control record, notified on 6 April 2016, gives him more than 50 but less than 75 per cent of the shares and votes, as a member of a firm. Nationality Israeli. Date of birth July 1983. Address Floor 26, 23 Yehudah Halevi, Tel Aviv. The 75 per cent holder is B.C. Strategy Ltd of the same street. Yanus is notified for significant influence or control, and is the only director.[1]

Black Cube

Zorella's Military Intelligence background helped the young firm attract big names, above all the former Mossad director Meir Dagan, who advised it from its founding and became its honorary president.[7] In the Tchenguiz period the firm was run on a cost-plus basis out of a London office owned by Tchenguiz. The relationship ended in 2013 in cross-suits, in which Zorella was a named defendant, and a confidential settlement.[9][11] The firm's later Israeli clients included Nochi Dankner (2014), Bank Hapoalim (from 2015) and, according to Uvda, Idan Ofer (2014), whom Black Cube denied having met.[3][13][18] In February 2021 Adrian Leppard told the Financial Times that the mining businessman Beny Steinmetz was a "historic" client of Black Cube. The same article reported that the firm had in the past been retained by ENRC (Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation); ENRC denied wrongdoing.[19] The firm's other contracts, including the Harvey Weinstein contract (2016–17), the approaches to Obama administration officials (2017–18), Hungary (2017–18) and the Playtech job against Evolution AB (2021), are set out on the Black Cube and Avi Yanus pages.

Romania

In 2016 Black Cube was hired, through the former Romanian intelligence (SRI) officer Daniel Dragomir, to find material discrediting Laura Codruța Kövesi, then head of Romania's anti-corruption directorate (DNA). Zorella was never arrested, but he was questioned in Israel as part of the Romanian investigation. The Romanian paper EVZ published what it said were leaks from his deposition. According to these, Dragomir had asked him to come to Romania and had convinced him that the work had the backing of the president and the head of the SRI.[7] Romania's organised-crime prosecutors (DIICOT) said in their 2020 indictment of Dragomir that he had contacted "D.Z.", a representative of the Black Cube brand, through an intermediary, and had commissioned an operation code-named "Tornado". They found no evidence that any state institution was involved.[20] G4Media, citing Haaretz, reported that in his Israeli testimony Zorella said the person who had confirmed the SRI's involvement to him was Meir Dagan, who had since died without being questioned. Prosecutors closed that line of inquiry in 2020.[15]

According to the Times of Israel, Zorella told Israeli investigators that he had instructed the two employees, Ron Weiner and David Geclowicz, to hack into Kövesi's email in the hope of finding compromising material. They were detained before they could do so, and both later received suspended sentences.[12] In March 2022 the Bucharest Tribunal convicted Zorella, Yanus and Gal Farchi on plea agreements of forming an organised criminal group. None of them was present. Each received two years and eleven months, suspended, with three years' supervision. Zorella was also ordered to attend a social-reintegration programme and to do unpaid community work. The court confiscated £115,000, which B.C. Strategy UK Ltd had paid into a DIICOT account on 17 June 2021.[15][12] Black Cube said it had been "hired by a senior official in Romania", had cooperated with the authorities to free its two employees, and had stopped working "in the cyber world" immediately afterwards.[12]

Students for Justice in Palestine (2024)

In August 2024 TheMarker/Haaretz reported, citing three sources, that Zorella had met the Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli near the end of June to discuss a possible Black Cube investigation of Students for Justice in Palestine, the US campus group. The ministry's director general, Avi Cohen-Scali, and Giora Eiland, described as chairman of Black Cube's advisory board, also attended. The meeting took place at a private home in Herzliya.[5][16] All sides agreed the operation never got a green light, but accounts of who rejected it conflict. The ministry said Black Cube had approached it and the ministry rejected the proposal. Three sources said the idea came from the ministry and the company rejected it, concerned that it would put the firm in the crosshairs of the US administration.[16] Black Cube said it "does not and has never operated against students or any political protest group in the United States".[16]

Slovenia (2025–2026)

On 16–17 March 2026, days before Slovenia's general election, the weekly Mladina and the 8 March Institute alleged, on the basis of flight data and an anonymous source, that Zorella and Eiland had flown into Ljubljana on 22 December 2025 to meet the opposition leader Janez Janša.[8][21] Politico Europe reported that Slovenian law enforcement accused the visitors of "covert surveillance and wiretapping" and of helping to leak recordings ahead of the vote. State Secretary Vojko Volk said Black Cube representatives had visited four times, and that on 11 December a team including Zorella had spent time on the street where the SDS has its headquarters, though he did not say they went inside. Janša said he had met Eiland but could not recall when.[17] On 20 March the director of SOVA, Joško Kadivnik, presented "material evidence" linking Giora Eiland, Liron Tzur and Dan Zorella to the visit to the SDS headquarters at Trstenjakova ulica 8 on 10–11 December 2025, and the police opened an investigation.[6] Janša went on to form a government after the election.[22] The case is covered on Black Cube in Slovenia.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Persons with significant control: B.C. Strategy UK Ltd, Companies House, accessed 17 October 2026.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Gur Megiddo, Israel Hired Black Cube, Allowing Spy Firm to Operate Out of Military Intel Base, Haaretz, 22 August 2019.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Efrat Peretz, Investigating the investigators, Globes, 3 February 2014.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Robert Mendick, Inside the shadowy world of the ‘private Mossad’, Daily Telegraph, 21 March 2024 (syndicated by Yahoo News; original, paywalled).
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 ToI Staff, Minister, Black Cube CEO discussed probing Students for Justice in Palestine – report, Times of Israel, 8 August 2024.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Government Communication Office, New findings on foreign interference in Slovenia’s elections, Government of the Republic of Slovenia, 20 March 2026.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Hadas Magen, Black Cube - a "Mossad-style" business intelligence co, Globes, 2 April 2017.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Borut Mekina and others, How Israelis met with Janez Janša (English version of the investigation report), Mladina with the 8 March Institute (critical), 16 March 2026.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 ToI Staff, Cambridge Analytica-linked businessman helped start Black Cube, lawsuit claims, Times of Israel, 23 August 2018.
  10. ↑ בי.סי. אסטרטגיה בע״מ (B.C. Strategy Ltd), company 514587591, Open Budget (mirror of the Israeli Registrar of Companies), accessed 17 October 2026.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Simon Bowers, Vincent Tchenguiz settles Black Cube legal dispute, The Guardian, 22 April 2013.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 AFP and ToI Staff, 3 Israelis from Black Cube intel firm given suspended sentence in Romania, Times of Israel, 21 March 2022.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Ela Levi-Weinrib, Zissers heirs to pay Hapoalim NIS 95m, Globes, 15 February 2018.
  14. ↑ Shany Moses and Chen Ma'anit, Ofra Strauss: Black Cube's behavior is a wake-up call, Globes, 10 June 2019.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Alex Costache, Şefii Black Cube, condamnați la câte 2 ani și 11 luni de detenție cu suspendare în dosarul spionării fostei şefe DNA, Laura Codruţa Kovesi (Black Cube bosses each given 2 years 11 months suspended in the case of spying on former DNA chief Laura Codruța Kövesi), G4Media, 20 March 2022.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 Gur Megiddo, Israeli Minister Held Talks With Black Cube About Spying on Pro-Palestinian U.S. Student Group, Haaretz, 7 August 2024.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Black Cube, leaked tapes and corruption: Israeli spy firm crashes Slovenia’s election, Politico Europe, 19 March 2026.
  18. ↑ AP and ToI Staff, Israeli tycoon hired Black Cube to smear Yair Lapid in 2014 — report, Times of Israel, 7 June 2019.
  19. ↑ Kadhim Shubber and Tom Burgis, Black Cube executive says UK austerity helped business, Financial Times, 5 February 2021.
  20. ↑ DIICOT a finalizat dosarul Black Cube. Fugarul Dragomir ar fi încercat o acțiune de compromitere a lui Kovesi, Hellvig și Iohannis (DIICOT completes the Black Cube file: fugitive Dragomir allegedly tried to compromise Kövesi, Hellvig and Iohannis), Digi24, 15 July 2020.
  21. ↑ Israeli spy firm's alleged visit to Slovenia raises tensions on eve of vote, Reuters, 17 March 2026.
  22. ↑ Slovenia's new government lifts entry ban on Netanyahu and other measures against Israel, Los Angeles Times (AP), 11 June 2026.
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