The former boss of a US maker of hacking and surveillance tools stole and sold technology that could hack millions of computers and people around the world, US prosecutors have confirmed for the first time.

In October, Australian national Peter Williams, 39, pleaded guilty to selling eight hacking tools which he stole from his employer Trenchant, a division of US defense contractor L3Harris, which sells its surveillance-enabling tools to the US government and its closest allies. Williams admitted that he made more than $1.3 million in crypto from sales between 2022 and 2025, per the Justice Department.

In a court document published Tuesday, federal prosecutors said Williams’ actions “directly harmed” the US intelligence community by selling hacking tools to a Russian company, which counts the Russian government among its customers.

Meanwhile Williams was known to have sold Trenchant’s exploits — software that exploits flaws in other software that would normally gain access to a person’s computer or device — prosecutors now say these eight tools could have been used in indiscriminate government surveillance, cybercrime, and ransomware attacks around the world.

This latest disclosure comes ahead of Williams’ expected sentencing on February 24 in a federal court in Washington DC. In its sentencing memorandum, which prosecutors used to persuade a court to impose the maximum penalty, the Justice Department said that the exploits sold by Williams would have allowed the Russian broker and its customers to “potentially access millions of computers and devices around the world, including in the United States.”

Prosecutors asked the judge to sentence Williams to nine years in prison, with three years of supervised release, a mandatory restitution of $35 million, and a maximum fine of $250,000. Williams is expected to be deported to Australia after serving his sentence, the memorandum said.

In response to the prosecutors’ memorandum, Williams submitted a letter to the judge explaining his decisions, saying that he regrets his actions.

“I made choices that directly violated the values ​​I believed in and the trust placed in me by my family, colleagues, and friends,” Williams wrote. “I know now that I allowed myself to ignore my obligations and my training, and I failed to ask for help or guidance when I knew I was moving in the wrong direction.”

Williams’ attorney John P. Rowley wrote in answer to the prosecutors that none of the stolen hacking tools were classified, and there was no evidence that Williams knew the tools would end up in the hands of the Russian or another country’s governments. His lawyer said Williams did not intend to harm the US and his native Australia, “although he now acknowledges that was the result of his actions.”

When reached by TechCrunch, Justice Department spokesman Pierson Furnish declined to comment. Rowley, Williams’ attorney, did not respond to a request for comment.

From scapegoat to sentence

During the middle of 2025, several sources with knowledge of the harmful cybersecurity industry told TechCrunch that someone working at Trenchant stole sensitive hacking tools and sold them to an adversary in the United States.

A former Trenchant employee has come forward, telling TechCrunch that he was wrongfully fired after the company accused him of stealing and leaking details of some of the company’s exploits.

But in October, prosecutors formally accused Williams, who also went by “Doogie” and Trenchant’s general manager at the time, of being behind the theft of the company’s hacking tools. The US government accused Williams of selling the exploits to a Russian broker in exchange for crypto.

Prosecutors said FBI agents spoke with Williams from late 2024 to the time of his arrest in mid-2025, during which he oversaw an internal investigation into Trenchant’s theft of company secrets.

Despite the ongoing investigation, Williams continues to sell the company’s secrets and exploits – technically known as zero-days because the software maker was affected there was no time to fix it – even though he knew that the FBI was investigating the theft and sale of Trenchant’s hacking tools.

Williams also oversaw the firing of a Trenchant employee accused of leaking tools, Sources told TechCrunch and prosecutors confirmed. The fired employee told TechCrunch that he believed he was a scapegoat for someone else in the company. Weeks after his firing, the employee received a notification from Apple that he was targeted by government spyware, which has not yet been explained.

“(Williams) stood idly by while another company employee was blamed for the Defendant’s own actions,” prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memorandum. “He watched as an internal corporate investigation wrongly blamed his subordinate.”

A Trenchant spokesman did not respond to a request for comment about Williams or its investigation.

It was only on August 6 when FBI agents obtained and executed search warrants for William’s home, and then confronted Williams with evidence showing receipts for crypto payments, the alias he used to communicate with the Russian broker who bought the stolen trade secrets, and his broker contract.

The Russian broker is probably Operation Zero, which offers up to $20 million for tools to hack Android and iPhone devices. The company clearly stated it is sold only to the Russian government and local organizations.

Operation Zero did not return a request for comment.

Prosecutors called the broker, whom it did not name, “one of the worst investors in the world,” and said Williams chose it because, “by his own admission, he knew they paid the most.”

“Williams’ desire for more money, a better lifestyle, a bigger house and more jewels and jewels was never satiated, and he chose to risk everything to betray his company, his partners, and the United States and its allies to satisfy that desire,” prosecutors wrote.