Ex-L3Harris Trenchant executive sentenced to prison for selling hacking tools to Russian intermediary

Peter Williams, a former executive at a U.S. defence contractor, was sentenced Tuesday to seven years in prison for stealing and selling hacking and surveillance tools from his former employer to a Russian-linked buyer.

Bloomberg and Cyberscoop reporters were the first to report Williams’ sentencing.

Williams served as the general manager of Trenchant, a division within defence contractor L3Harris that sells hacking and surveillance capabilities — often referred to as zero-days — to the U.S. government and a small set of close allies known as the Five Eyes, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.

Last year, Williams, 39, an Australian citizen living in Washington, D.C., pleaded guilty to selling seven Trenchant trade secrets to a Russian intermediary. Prosecutors did not identify the buyer at the time, but on Tuesday, the U.S. Treasury Department said the broker was Operation Zero and announced sanctions against the company.

Operation Zero is known for offering millions of dollars for information on security vulnerabilities affecting Android and iPhone devices, as well as messaging platforms like Telegram. The firm has claimed it resells the tools it acquires exclusively to the Russian government and domestic organisations.

The U.S. Department of Justice said the capabilities Williams sold could have enabled the end customer to “potentially access millions of computers and devices around the world.” Williams, who previously worked for an Australian intelligence agency and the country’s military, admitted he earned $1.3 million in cryptocurrency from the sales between 2022 and 2025.