“Team Jorge” might as well not exist. This phantom company has no website, no switchboard or contact form. To offer its services, it is necessary either to approach one of the showcase companies that revolve around it, or to be put in touch by someone close to “Jorge”, the elusive mercenary in chief who presents himself only under a pseudonym. A secret that can be explained by the nature of the services provided by Team Jorge: à la carte smear and misinformation campaigns, ranging from hacking e-mail boxes to spreading rumors through fake news sites and armies of fake profiles on social networks.
The “Story Killers” project, coordinated by the Forbidden Stories organization and involving several media, including The world, today lifts the veil on this pharmacy, based in Israel but which has customers all over the world. As part of this investigation, journalists from Radio France and the Israeli media Ha’aretz And TheMarker were able to obtain, by posing as intermediaries of potential customers, several appointments with teams and partners of Team Jorge. Appointments during which the capabilities of the company were praised.
“Story Killers”, investigation into disinformation mercenaries
For several months, some twenty newsrooms, including that of the Worldinvestigated, within the Forbidden Stories consortium, on companies specializing in the manipulation of public opinion and the dissemination of false information. As part of this project called “Story Killers”, three journalists from the consortium were able to participate, posing as intermediaries for a potential French client, in several meetings with pharmacies selling tools of influence ” keys in hand “.
This investigation notably made it possible to reveal the existence of “Team Jorge”, a very discreet Israeli company which claims its interference in several dozen elections throughout the world. It offers its customers an arsenal of illegal services, from the hacking of e-mail boxes and private messaging from adversaries to the massive dissemination of influence campaigns thanks to a gigantic network of fake accounts on social networks.
Its representatives thus prided themselves on having worked on more than thirty presidential elections throughout the world, mainly in Africa, and detailed some of their operations, both on behalf of States and private actors. . “We have worked in Europe, Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America”explains Mashy Meidan, an Israeli partner of the organization, described by “Jorge” as “having led some of the [campagnes] the most successful in history ». When contacted, Mr. Meidan said in the voice of a lawyer that he had never heard the name “Team Jorge” before.
Blackmail against opponents
Multiple actions orchestrated by the company have been identified as part of the “Story Killers” project, from the promotion of nuclear power in California to the support of Senegalese President Macky Sall for his re-election in 2019, via the denigration of the Swiss whistleblower Xavier Justo who participated in revealing the 1MDB corruption scandal in Malaysia, or even attacks against a major yachting company. During an interview with journalists from the consortium, officials from Team Jorge even explained that they were able to seek, by various means, compromising information on political opponents in order to practice various forms of blackmail.
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