Black Cube

Black Cube
Logo
Type	Private (Israeli parent B.C. Strategy Ltd, company 514587591; English subsidiary B.C. Strategy UK Ltd, company 08153977)
Founded	7 March 2011 (as Zorella Ltd, Tel Aviv); some reports give 2010
Headquarters	23 Yehuda Halevi Street, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel (Discount Bank Tower)
Industry	Private intelligence; litigation support; asset tracing
Subsidiaries	B.C. Strategy UK Ltd
Number of employees	About 200 (May 2026)

Black Cube is an Israeli private intelligence firm founded in 2011 by Dan Zorella and Avi Yanus. It is staffed largely by veterans of Israeli military intelligence, the Mossad and the Shin Bet, and is known for undercover operations using false identities against targets including Harvey Weinstein's accusers, Obama administration officials, Hungarian NGOs and Romania's anti-corruption prosecutor.

Black Cube says it "was founded in 2011 by veterans of elite Israeli Intelligence Units", that it helps clients "win their high-stakes disputes", and that it has handled more than 620 cases in over 80 countries (the firm's own website). It trades through an Israeli company, B.C. Strategy Ltd, and an English subsidiary, B.C. Strategy UK Ltd. Its late honorary president was the former Mossad director Meir Dagan, and its advisory board has included a second former Mossad head, Efraim Halevi, and the former national security adviser Giora Eiland.

Its operatives have been convicted in Romania, and in 2022 its two founders accepted suspended sentences there by plea agreement. In March 2026 Slovenia's intelligence agency named Zorella, Eiland and a third Black Cube representative in connection with alleged interference in that country's election.

Founding and early funding

Globes reported in 2017 that Black Cube was founded in 2011 by Dan Zorella, originally from Haifa, who had served in an elite unit of IDF Military Intelligence (Aman), and Dr Avi Yanus. Both were then in their early thirties and had met while studying management and economics at the Technion. Zorella went on to an MBA at Tel Aviv University, Yanus completed a doctorate and moved to London to run the European investigations, and the late Meir Dagan advised the firm from its founding and later became its honorary president. NBC News also gives 2011. Some outlets give 2010. Haaretz reported in 2019 that the firm was "founded in 2010 by Zorella and Avi Yanus, who met during studies at the Technion". Calcalist and the Jerusalem Post also give 2010. The Israeli register gives B.C. Strategy Ltd an incorporation date of 7 March 2011. None of the sources reviewed for this page places the founders in Unit 8200. The military background they give is IDF Military Intelligence generally.

Vincent Tchenguiz

The firm's first major client, and by his own account a co-founder in all but name, was the London property investor Vincent Tchenguiz. According to a 2013 lawsuit filed in Tel Aviv by his company Vincos Ltd and reported by the Times of Israel, Tchenguiz met Zorella in 2010, when Zorella was said to be working for the web-intelligence firm Businessscope, in which a Tchenguiz company held 17 per cent. After the Serious Fraud Office raided Tchenguiz's home and office on 10 March 2011 over the collapse of Kaupthing Bank, he turned to Zorella. Three days earlier, on 7 March 2011, Zorella had registered Zorella Ltd, which was later renamed B.C. Strategy Ltd.

The complaint said Vincos paid Black Cube £844,790 between December 2011 and December 2012 on a cost-plus-15-per-cent basis. Under a February 2012 agreement it held a five-year option on 49 per cent of the company. The UK arm also used a London office owned by Tchenguiz for a nominal £1 a month. The firm's main project for him, code-named "Athena", was research into Kaupthing. In 2014 the SFO dropped its case against Tchenguiz and paid him damages.

The relationship broke down in early 2013. Tchenguiz threw Black Cube staff out of his Park Lane office and accused them of "a wholesale fraud". Black Cube sued him in London for unpaid bills of about £330,000, and he sued in Tel Aviv for £924,790. Both claims were settled in April 2013 on undisclosed terms. The 2013 filings also show that Black Cube applied, with Tchenguiz's support, for a Magnet/Meimad dual-use technology grant from Israel's Economy Ministry. The ministry would not say whether a grant was paid.

Corporate structure

Black Cube companies

#	Company	Number	Jurisdiction	Registered address	Incorporated	Notes
1	B.C. Strategy Ltd (בי.סי. אסטרטגיה בע"מ)	514587591	Israel	23 Yehuda Halevi Street, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel	7 March 2011	Parent company, originally Zorella Ltd. Holds 75 per cent or more of the UK company
2	B.C. Strategy UK Ltd	08153977	England and Wales	Dashwood House, 69 Old Broad Street, Bishopsgate, London, England, EC2M 1QS	24 July 2012	Active. Sole director: Dr Avi Yanus, appointed 24 July 2012. Persons with significant control: B.C. Strategy Ltd, Avi Yanus and Dan Zorella, all notified 6 April 2016

The website's terms of use name B.C. Strategy UK Limited, at Dashwood House, as the operator ("Black Cube"), but make them governed by Israeli law with exclusive jurisdiction in the Tel Aviv courts. The firm lists offices in Tel Aviv (Discount Bank Tower, 23 Yehuda HaLevi Street), London (Dashwood House, 69 Old Broad Street), Madrid (Torre Europa, Paseo de la Castellana 95) and Singapore (Marina Bay Financial Centre, 8 Marina Boulevard). The Financial Times gave the same four office cities, Tel Aviv, London, Madrid and Singapore, in November 2025. In May 2026 Globes reported that the company, with about 200 staff and some 40 more being recruited, had leased a second floor of the Discount Tower for NIS 2 million a year.

Methods

Black Cube describes its work as human intelligence (HUMINT) gathered to "secure hard evidence even when no paper trail exists". In a 2019 interview, adviser Giora Eiland said the firm used just two methods, human sources and open sources, and that its agents posed as other people to get suspects to talk. In the documented cases, the cover was usually a fake investment or consultancy firm:

• Reuben Capital Partners, used against Harvey Weinstein's accusers.
• Tauro Capital, used in Hungary, supported by LinkedIn accounts and websites that were deleted after the meetings.
• Parvus Capital, used against Evolution AB, with "a fake website, fake email addresses, and fake identities", according to an affidavit by Evolution's former US commercial director Jeff Millar.

The Weinstein contract promised "avatar operators" to create fake social-media identities. In December 2021 Meta removed about 300 Facebook and Instagram accounts it attributed to Black Cube. The accounts posed as graduate students, NGO and human-rights workers, and film and TV producers, and tried to obtain targets' email addresses, "likely for later phishing attacks". Black Cube said it "does not undertake any phishing or hacking".

Operations

The table lists operations attributed to Black Cube in court records, official statements or substantial press investigations. Black Cube's policy is "never to confirm or deny" its clients, and where it has denied an operation, that is noted.

#	Year	Target / client	Country	Summary	Source
1	2011–13	Client: Vincent Tchenguiz	UK, Iceland	"Athena" research into Kaupthing Bank for Tchenguiz's fight with the Serious Fraud Office. It ended in a fee dispute and cross-suits, settled in April 2013
2	2012–14	Client: Israeli Defence Ministry	Israel	The IDF and Defence Ministry spokesmen acknowledged that the ministry hired Black Cube for intelligence projects between 2012 and 2014. Haaretz reported that during that period Black Cube employees were placed full-time on an IDF intelligence base. The ministry called it "a short-term contract" and refused to say what the employees did, how much the firm was paid or whether it was hired through a tender. See Black Cube and the Israeli state
3	2014	Client: Nochi Dankner; target: Moti Ben-Moshe	Israel	Hired by Dankner, with Barlev Investigative Auditing, to examine the finances of the new co-controller of IDB Holding. The findings were filed in Dankner's court bid to reverse the loss of IDB
4	2014	Client: Idan Ofer; target: Yair Lapid and officials	Israel	Channel 12's Uvda reported that Ofer hired the firm to get material on the finance minister and officials; the Times of Israel and AP described the officials as dealing with tax on gas finds. Haaretz named the client as ICL, controlled by Ofer, which "was at odds with the government over how much it should pay for its mining operations", and the targets as Lapid, the accountant general Michal Abadi-Boiangiu and the deputy attorney general Avi Licht. Black Cube denied being hired, but Ofer acknowledged hiring the company. Sources close to Black Cube said it had drafted a proposal that was "never carried out". Ofer's spokesman said the contract was brief and its results were not used
5	2015–18	Client: Bank Hapoalim; target: estate of Motti Zisser	Israel and abroad	Black Cube uncovered family assets for the bank. In February 2018 the heirs agreed to pay Hapoalim NIS 95 million
6	2015–16	Reported client: President Joseph Kabila	DR Congo	Uvda reported an operation to monitor Kabila's opponents. Black Cube denied it. See Black Cube in the Democratic Republic of Congo
7	2016	Target: Laura Codruța Kövesi and people close to her	Romania	An operation to discredit the head of the anti-corruption directorate (DNA), including illegal access to email accounts. Two operatives were convicted in 2016–17 and the founders in 2022. See Romania and Black Cube in Romania
8	2016–17	Client: Harvey Weinstein, through the law firm Boies Schiller Flexner	United States	Undercover approaches to Rose McGowan and to journalists, to stop publication of the New York Times story and to obtain McGowan's book. See Weinstein and Black Cube and Harvey Weinstein
9	2017	Target: retired judge Frank Newbould	Canada	An operative posing as a prospective client recorded Newbould at a Toronto restaurant in September 2017 and apparently tried to draw antisemitic remarks from him. Newbould had been the trial judge in Catalyst Capital v West Face Capital. Catalyst said a subcontractor of a firm it hired carried out the sting, without its knowledge. See Frank Newbould sting
10	2017–18	Targets: Ben Rhodes and Colin Kahl (Obama officials)	United States	Operatives approached the officials' wives under false identities, seeking material to discredit the Iran nuclear deal. The Observer said people in the Trump camp were behind it. Black Cube denied any Trump link. See Black Cube and the Iran nuclear deal
11	2017–18	Targets: NGOs linked to George Soros	Hungary	Between December 2017 and March 2018, agents under false identities secretly recorded NGO staff. The recordings appeared in Magyar Idők and were used by Viktor Orbán before the April 2018 election. Migration Aid's director photographed the operatives. Black Cube would not comment. See Black Cube in Hungary
12	Reported 2019	Client: Oro Negro; target: Pemex	Mexico	Eiland said the firm gathered evidence of a bribery demand at the state oil company, on instructions from a large American law firm
13	Reported 2019	Target: Ofra Strauss	Israel	Uvda reported a Black Cube intelligence operation against the Strauss Group chair. Former Strauss executives linked it to the company's 2013 dispute with TPG. Uvda also reported that Hot, Bezeq and Israel Chemicals had hired Black Cube
14	2021–24	Client: Playtech; target: Evolution AB	UK, Sweden, United States	A covert investigation of whether Evolution served prohibited markets. It led to a 2021 complaint to the New Jersey gaming regulator. See Playtech and Playtech–Evolution affair
15	2024	Proposed client: Israeli Diaspora Affairs Ministry; target: Students for Justice in Palestine	Israel, United States	Minister Amichai Chikli met Zorella and Giora Eiland, chairman of Black Cube's advisory board, at a private home in Herzliya at the end of June 2024 about a possible probe of the US campus group. Haaretz reported that 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. Black Cube said it "does not and has never operated against students or any political protest group in the United States". See Black Cube and the Israeli state
16	2025–26	Alleged: election interference	Slovenia	On 10–11 December 2025 Black Cube representatives visited the SDS party headquarters in Ljubljana. In March 2026 SOVA named Giora Eiland, Liron Tzur and Dan Zorella. See Black Cube in Slovenia
17	Reported 2022	Alleged target: opponents of Dan Gertler around President Tshisekedi	DR Congo	Africa Intelligence reported a sting on Tshisekedi's adviser Vidiye Tshimanga and others who had clashed with Gertler. Congolese coverage said the intelligence agency was considering whether Black Cube was involved. Black Cube said it had "never worked" with Gertler or Kabila, and Gertler denied using it. OCCRP found no evidence that Black Cube was involved in the Tshimanga recordings
18	2014	Proposed client: government of Argentina; target: Elliott Management	Argentina, United States	TheMarker reported in 2014 that Black Cube had offered its services to the Argentine government to collect information on the US hedge fund Elliott Management, which had taken Argentina to court in New York over its restructured bonds
19	Reported 2019	Client: Bezeq; target: the Communications Ministry's landline reform	Israel	Uvda reported that Bezeq Telecommunications hired the firm to undermine the landline reform led by the ministry's then director general, Avi Berger. Black Cube said it had never "planned, followed, spied on, or even watched on TV any government officials in Israel"
20	2021–24	Client: the Huts family (Katoen Natie); targets: rival port operator Montecon, then Uruguay's Broad Front	Uruguay	Intelligence Online reported in July 2026 that the Belgian Huts family hired the firm. A source said it helped set up hidden cameras to film Montecon executives in Montevideo in 2021. Before the 2024 election it sought evidence of illegal financing by the Broad Front, "including by recording conversations with party members", according to a single source. No scandal emerged. Black Cube cited client confidentiality and denied conducting political investigations in Uruguay. See Black Cube in Uruguay
21	2022	Client: Horacio Cartes	Paraguay	Intelligence Online reported, citing a person close to the case, that the former president sought the firm's help against prosecutors' investigations into money laundering, cigarette smuggling and tax avoidance, that the plan was agreed at the Sheraton in Asunción in September 2022, and that the firm invoiced a Paraguayan law firm for "litigation support". Black Cube denied conducting political investigations in Paraguay. See Black Cube in Paraguay

Weinstein

On 28 October 2016 Boies Schiller Flexner, for Harvey Weinstein, wired the firm the first $100,000 of what became a $600,000 invoice. A contract of 11 July 2017, bearing David Boies’s signature, set the aim as intelligence to “completely stop the publication of a new negative article in a leading NY newspaper,” and to obtain the content of a book then being written about him. The agency supplied an agent under the name "Anna". As "Diana Filip" of Reuben Capital Partners she met Rose McGowan, and as "Anna" she met Ben Wallace, a journalist at New York magazine. The firm also supplied avatar operators to build false social-media identities. In 2019 Ronan Farrow identified the agent as Stella Penn Pechanac. He also reported that Seth Freedman, a British former Guardian contributor hired by the firm, presented himself as a journalist working on a story when he approached Rose McGowan, other women with allegations against Weinstein and journalists investigating him, including Ben Wallace. A further $300,000 was payable if publication was stopped. The New York Times and New Yorker stories ran in October 2017, so that fee was not earned. According to the Real News Network (critical), Weinstein reportedly took Black Cube on the recommendation of the former prime minister Ehud Barak. In 2018 a source told Ynet that the firm regretted taking Weinstein as a client. The operation is covered in more detail on Black Cube and Harvey Weinstein, and the criminal cases against Weinstein on the Harvey Weinstein page.

Idan Ofer

In June 2019 Channel 12’s Uvda reported that Idan Ofer had hired the firm in 2014 to gather material on the finance minister, Yair Lapid, and on officials dealing with tax on natural-gas finds. According to the programme, the aim was to smear them and head off a tax rise that would cut his companies’ profits. Haaretz carried the same account. Black Cube denied it, said it had never met Ofer or targeted politicians, judges or regulators, and sued the programme. Ofer's spokesman confirmed a brief contract but said its intelligence was not used. In August 2019 Haaretz gave a different account of the dispute. It named the client as ICL, controlled by Ofer, which "was at odds with the government over how much it should pay for its mining operations", and the targets as Lapid, the accountant general Michal Abadi-Boiangiu and the deputy attorney general Avi Licht. It reported that Black Cube denied being hired by Ofer, "but Ofer acknowledged hiring the company", and that sources close to the firm said it had drafted a proposal for him that "was never carried out". In June 2019 Efraim Halevi told the Wall Street Journal that Romania had been the only case in which Black Cube worked for a politically motivated client. If Uvda’s account is right, the 2014 approach over what Ofer's companies paid the state would be a second. More detail is on the Idan Ofer page.

Playtech

In 2021 London-listed Playtech, under chief executive Mor Weizer, hired the firm to investigate whether the Swedish supplier Evolution AB was taking play from prohibited markets. In a deposition transcript filed by Evolution with the New Jersey Superior Court, Avi Yanus said the opening fee was £400,000 for three months. Operatives posed as investors, including through a fictitious firm called Parvus Capital, and recorded Evolution staff. Success fees followed:

• £150,000 for the evidence.
• £175,000 when Bloomberg reported the complaint, a story Yanus called “a beautiful piece of article”.
• £350,000 when the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement opened an inquiry.
• A further £500,000, conditional on Evolution losing its licence, was not paid.

Evolution put the total at more than £1.8 million. The regulator closed its case in 2024. In September 2025 a New Jersey Superior Court judge said that, “viewed through the lens” of the Division of Gaming Enforcement, the report based on Black Cube’s dossier was “objectively baseless”, and the court ordered the firm to name its client. When Evolution named Playtech on 21 October 2025, Playtech’s shares fell by as much as 39 per cent. Playtech said it stood by its decision to commission the report. The fee schedule is on the Playtech page, and the dispute on Playtech–Evolution affair.

Other named clients

In February 2021 Adrian Leppard, a member of the advisory board, 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), a mining group then under a long-running Serious Fraud Office investigation; ENRC denied wrongdoing. A Geneva court convicted Steinmetz in January 2021 of bribery over mining rights in Guinea, and Switzerland's Federal Supreme Court upheld the conviction in 2025.

Uruguay and Paraguay

In July 2026 Intelligence Online reported that the Belgian Huts family, owners of the Antwerp logistics group Katoen Natie, had hired Black Cube in Uruguay. Katoen Natie runs the largest terminal in the port of Montevideo, and in February 2021 the government extended its licence to 2081, a move the opposition Broad Front challenged. According to a source cited by Intelligence Online, the work began in 2021 against the rival port operator Montecon, and the firm helped set up hidden cameras to film Montecon executives in Montevideo. Before the 2024 election, the firm sought information about Yamandú Orsi's circle and, according to a single source, "evidence of illegal financing by Broad Front, including by recording conversations with party members". No such scandal emerged, and Orsi won the run-off. More detail is on Black Cube in Uruguay.

The same report said Black Cube's Madrid office handled a 2022 job for the former Paraguayan president Horacio Cartes, who, according to a person close to the case, sought help against prosecutors' investigations into money laundering, cigarette smuggling and tax avoidance. The plan was reportedly agreed at the Sheraton in Asunción in September 2022, and the firm invoiced a Paraguayan law firm for "litigation support". The US State Department had designated Cartes for "involvement in significant corruption" in July 2022, and the Treasury sanctioned him in January 2023. Through an English law firm, Black Cube cited client confidentiality and denied conducting political investigations in either country. More detail is on Black Cube in Paraguay.

Romania

In 2016 Black Cube was hired, through former Romanian intelligence (SRI) officer Daniel Dragomir, to find material discrediting Laura Codruța Kövesi, then head of Romania's anti-corruption directorate (DNA). Dragomir had been indicted by the DNA. Globes cited material from Zorella's deposition, as published by the Romanian paper EVZ. According to that material, Dragomir convinced Zorella that the work had the backing of the president and the SRI chief. Two employees, Ron Weiner and David Geclowicz, were arrested in Bucharest in April 2016. On 16 November 2016 the Bucharest Tribunal approved Geclowicz's plea agreement with prosecutors (DIICOT) and gave him two years and eight months, suspended.

On 26 January 2017 the Bucharest Court of Appeal gave Weiner a final sentence of two years and eight months, suspended under three years' supervision. He had admitted:

• forming an organised criminal group;
• illegal access to a computer system;
• unauthorised data transfer;
• computer forgery;
• violating the secrecy of correspondence.

The victims were people close to Kövesi. An arrest warrant was issued in absentia for a third employee.

In March 2022 the Bucharest Tribunal convicted Dan Zorella, Avi Yanus and Gal Farchi on plea agreements. Each received two years and eleven months, suspended, with three years' supervision. Zorella was also ordered to do 60 days' community service, and the court ordered £115,000 confiscated. After the scandals the firm set up a client-screening system that sorted clients green, yellow or red. In 2021 Adrian Leppard said his understanding was that the firm had believed it was working for Romanian intelligence. The case is covered in more detail on Black Cube in Romania.

Legal cases

#	Year	Case	Court	Outcome	Source
1	2013	Black Cube v Tchenguiz; Vincos Ltd v B.C. Strategy Ltd, B.C. Strategy UK Ltd, Zorella and Yanus	High Court, London; Tel Aviv District Court	Black Cube claimed about £330,000 in unpaid fees. Vincos claimed £924,790 for alleged fraud. Both settled in April 2013 on undisclosed terms
2	2016–17	Romanian state v Weiner and Geclowicz	Bucharest Tribunal; Bucharest Court of Appeal	Plea agreements. Each received two years and eight months, suspended
3	2019–20	B.C. Strategy UK Ltd v Keshet Broadcasting and five Uvda journalists (libel, £15m)	High Court, Queen's Bench Division, London	Black Cube discontinued the claim on 16 November 2020. On 17 November Mr Justice Saini ordered it to make an interim payment of £350,000 towards the defendants' costs. See Black Cube v Keshet
4	2022	Romanian state v Zorella, Yanus and Farchi	Bucharest Tribunal	Plea agreements. Each received two years and eleven months, suspended, with £115,000 confiscated
5	2025–	Evolution v Calcagni & Kanefsky and Black Cube (defamation, trade libel)	New Jersey Superior Court	Black Cube was added as a defendant on 11 June 2025. In September 2025 the court ordered it to name its client, and the judge said that, "viewed through the lens" of the Division of Gaming Enforcement, the report was "objectively baseless". In June 2026 a motion to add Playtech was denied, and a hearing was set for November 2026

In Israel, the Israeli Bureau of Private Investigators complained to police in November 2017 that Black Cube was carrying out private investigations without a licence and gathering evidence by illegal means. Black Cube denied this. The Defence Ministry accepted the firm's statement that it did not export military know-how, and so did not require an export licence.

Recent developments (2025–2026)

• Playtech and Evolution. Evolution AB named Playtech as the client in October 2025, and the Financial Times published Yanus's deposition in November. On 15 June 2026 EGR reported that the New Jersey court had refused Evolution's request to add Playtech as a defendant, leaving the existing hearing in November. See Playtech–Evolution affair.
• Slovenia. On 17 March 2026, days before the general election, the 8 March Institute alleged that Zorella and Eiland had met the opposition leader Janez Janša in Ljubljana. Janša denied any meeting. On 20 March SOVA director Joško Kadivnik presented evidence linking Giora Eiland, Liron Tzur and Dan Zorella to the 10–11 December 2025 visit to the SDS headquarters at Trstenjakova ulica 8. Police said they were investigating unlawful audio and video recording, bribery, abuse of office, disclosure of classified information and offences against honour and reputation. On 10 July 2026 the government released part of a German forensic report finding that every file in the leaked recordings had been processed, with no sign of AI generation. The same day the National Assembly again rejected an opposition inquiry. On 9 October 2026 the opposition withdrew its request for an inquiry, which had been due for a vote on 12 October. More detail is on Black Cube in Slovenia.
• Latin America. In July 2026 Intelligence Online reported Black Cube work for the Huts family of Katoen Natie in Uruguay (2021–24) and for Horacio Cartes in Paraguay (2022). Black Cube denied conducting political investigations in either country. See Uruguay and Paraguay.
• Expansion. In May 2026 the company leased a second floor in Tel Aviv's Discount Tower and was recruiting about 40 staff.

Personnel

Giora Eiland, former national security adviser, has advised the firm since about 2017. In October 2019 he told Globes that the Oro Negro job against Pemex was a typical operation: a price cut after a refused bribe, with no paper trail, and an instruction that came not from the client but from a large American law firm. He said the firm had ethical boundaries, that many of its people had come from the Shin Bet and Mossad, and that its methods were human intelligence and open sources, including impersonation. He named Efraim Halevi and Yohanan Danino as senior advisers. In June 2024 he attended the meeting with Minister Amichai Chikli. Haaretz then described him as chairman of Black Cube's advisory board and said the firm's ethics committee was headed by him. In March 2026 Slovenia's intelligence agency, SOVA, officially named him as one of three Black Cube representatives linked to the December 2025 visit to the SDS headquarters in Ljubljana. The interview is on the Giora Eiland page.

In November 2018 Efraim Halevi, Mossad director from 1998 to 2002, joined the board to head a client-screening committee and to advise on operations. Ynet reported that the firm regretted having taken Harvey Weinstein, and that clients would be sorted green, yellow and red, with yellow cases going to his committee. Halevi himself said that it was "not a senior position". In June 2019 he told the Wall Street Journal that the Romania job against Laura Codruța Kövesi had been the only politically motivated client, and that the firm no longer worked for any government or on politically directed cases. Intelligence Online later summarised him as saying the stop came in 2016. In July 2026 it reported that the firm, hired by the Huts family of Katoen Natie, had sought evidence of illegal financing by Uruguay's Broad Front before the 2024 election, which would fall after that cut-off. More is on the Efraim Halevi page.

Adrian Leppard, Commissioner of the City of London Police from 2011 to 2015, joined the advisory board in December 2020, and Intelligence Online reported the appointment in January 2021. In February 2021 he told the Financial Times that police cuts had created a "business need for private investigation". He also said that under the firm's new ethics rules it would not take sexual-harassment cases or clients who were violent criminals, and that it no longer used offensive cyber techniques such as hacking. He defended deception: "It's quite lawful to deceive people if you're doing it for the greater good." He cited the firm's 350 cases and its role "in revealing corruption in Mexican oil industry", and would not rule out that Black Cube would investigate journalists, saying only that it was "extremely unlikely". The Weinstein engagement (2016–17) and the Romania hacking (2016) both predated those rules. In December 2021 Intelligence Online reported that his business interests were flourishing as the firm's were. His police career and company interests are on the Adrian Leppard page.

Founders, executives, advisers and named operatives (public record only)

#	Name	Role with Black Cube	Period	Background	Source
1	Dan Zorella	Co-founder, chief executive	2011–	Elite unit of IDF Military Intelligence (Aman). Convicted in Romania in 2022 on a plea agreement. Named by SOVA in 2026
2	Avi Yanus	Co-founder; sole director of B.C. Strategy UK Ltd	2011–	PhD; IDF background (Globes). Convicted in Romania in 2022 on a plea agreement
3	Meir Dagan	Adviser from founding; honorary president	2011–2016 (died 2016)	Director of the Mossad 2002–2012 (firm's dates)
4	Efraim Halevi	Board/advisory board; head of client-screening committee	2018–	Director of the Mossad 1998–2002
5	Giora Eiland	Adviser; chairman of the advisory board (2024); heads the ethics committee	c. 2017–	Major general (ret.); head of the National Security Council
6	Yohanan Danino	Senior adviser, advisory board	By 2019–	Former Israel Police Commissioner; later chairman of Migdal Insurance
7	Adrian Leppard	Advisory board	December 2020–	Commissioner, City of London Police 2011–2015
8	Rose Lopez Keravuori	Advisory board	Listed 2026	Brigadier general (ret.), US Army; former director of intelligence at US Africa Command (firm's description)
9	Asher Tishler	Board/advisory board	Listed 2017 and 2026	Professor; former president of the College of Management Academic Studies; former dean of Tel Aviv University's Faculty of Management
10	Itiel Maayan	Advisory board	Listed 2026	Technology executive; chief architect at AT&T (firm's description)
11	Golan Malka	Board (former)	Listed 2017	Lieutenant colonel (res.); former vice-president of marketing at NICE Systems
12	Mati Leshem	Board (former)	Listed 2017	Brigadier general (res.); recipient of the Israel Defense Prize
13	Liron Tzur	Representative	2025	Named by Slovenia's SOVA as one of three Black Cube representatives linked to the December 2025 Ljubljana visit
14	Gal Farchi	Executive	2016	Convicted in Romania in 2022 on a plea agreement, alongside the founders
15	Ron Weiner	Operative	2016	Arrested in Bucharest in April 2016; final conviction January 2017
16	David Geclowicz	Operative	2016	Arrested in Bucharest in April 2016; convicted November 2016
17	Stella Penn Pechanac	Operative	2016–17	Identified by Ronan Farrow in 2019 as the agent who used the aliases "Anna" and "Diana Filip" in the Weinstein job

Another board member, Paul Reyniers, a former Price Waterhouse partner and risk-management specialist, was listed in Romanian coverage in 2016 but is not on the firm's current website.

Related Israeli firms

Calcalist grouped Black Cube with Psy-Group, NSO Group and Fifth Dimension as Israeli intelligence firms that, "through their executives, employees, and advisors", all had "strong links to Israeli army intelligence units and the country’s national intelligence agencies, Mossad and Shin Bet". The Real News Network (critical) compared it with NSO and Psy-Group. For other firms founded by veterans of Israeli military and intelligence units, including Intellexa (founded by Tal Dilian) and BlackCore, see Cyber and tech firms founded by ex Unit 8200 or occupation forces veterans.

See also

• B.C. Strategy UK Ltd
• Black Cube in Romania
• Black Cube and Harvey Weinstein
• Black Cube in Hungary
• Black Cube and the Iran nuclear deal
• Black Cube v Keshet
• Frank Newbould sting
• Playtech–Evolution affair
• Black Cube and the Israeli state
• Black Cube in Slovenia
• Black Cube in the Democratic Republic of Congo
• Dan Zorella
• Avi Yanus
• Psy-Group
• NSO Group
• BlackCore
• Unit 8200
• Aman
• Mossad
• Shin Bet
• Vincent Tchenguiz
• Dan Gertler
• Cyber and tech firms founded by ex Unit 8200 or occupation forces veterans