Vatican and Israel implicated in Italian hacking scandal, leaked files reveal

ROME — A massive hacking scandal that has engulfed Italy is now threatening to spill beyond its borders, sucking in Israel, the Vatican, the United Kingdom and Lithuania.

New claims have been made via police wiretaps that foreign powers were among those using a Milan-based private investigative firm to penetrate state security databases with the aim of obtaining secret information about financial activity, private bank transactions and police investigations. 

Italian intelligence firm Equalize, which allegedly hacked information on thousands of people including politicians, entrepreneurs, athletes and even musicians, is accused of working for Israeli intelligence and the Vatican, police wiretaps leaked to Italian media show.  

Members of the hacking network, including Nunzio Samuele Calamucci — the man prosecutors accuse of orchestrating the scheme — met with two Israeli agents at the firm’s office in Milan in February 2023 to discuss a task worth €1 million, according to the leaked wiretaps.

The job was a cyber operation against Russian targets, including President Vladimir Putin’s unidentified “right-hand man,” and unearthing the financial trail leading from the bank accounts of wealthy figures to the Russian mercenary group Wagner. The information was then supposed to be passed on to the Vatican.

It’s unclear from the leaked documents why Israeli intelligence and the Vatican were involved with the controversial Milan firm and what their reasons were for soliciting information on Russian targets, but their presence in the dossier has dramatically expanded the scope of Italy’s sprawling investigation.

The Vatican did not respond to a written request for comment from POLITICO.

According to the wiretaps, the Israelis suggested a partnership to exchange information, offering “all of the original documents” from the EU’s so-called Qatargate scandal, which involved allegations that people linked to the European Parliament accepted money or gifts in exchange for doing the Gulf state’s bidding in Brussels.

They also offered the Italian firm information that could help one of Equalizer’s alleged clients, the Italian energy giant Eni, with information on the “illicit trafficking of Iranian gas with Italian companies.”

The Israeli Embassy in Rome declined to comment. 

Eni confirmed in a statement that it had hired Equalize for “an investigative assignment to support its strategy and defense in various criminal and civil cases” but said it was not aware of any illicit activities by the company.

Task force, assemble!

Italian politicians are up in arms about the mega hack-for-hire.

Ivan Scalfarotto, a senator from the opposition centrist Italia Viva party, told POLITICO that the role of foreign actors in the scandal added “a further worrying dimension to a phenomenon that presents strategic risks for the country.”

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Wednesday that the “unacceptable” hack, which intended “to blackmail, attack or pressure” politicians, and the hackers’ connections beyond national borders made it “much more serious.”

Tajani has ordered the creation of a task force to protect his ministry and Italy’s embassies abroad.

Other countries are likely to be pulled into the Italian investigation.

Calamucci, who previously boasted of penetrating the Pentagon with the Anonymous hacktivist collective, frequently referenced dozens of hackers working for him in Colchester, England. The firm also made use of servers in the United States and Lithuania, where they felt they were less vulnerable, according to leaked documents.

Prosecutors have ordered the seizure of a server in Lithuania and are evaluating whether to make a request to investigators in the U.K., according to reports in Italian media.

Four suspects who are currently under house arrest in relation to the case attended a hearing in Milan on Thursday, but refused to answer the judge’s questions.

Antonia Augimeri and Paolo Simonetti, lawyers for former police investigator Carmine Gallo, who is a partner in Equalize, and IT consultant Calamucci, said Gallo intended to oppose the charges but would be able to have a “fruitful” discussion with investigators only when he had seen all the legal documents. 

Calamucci is “willing to clarify his position” as soon as a complete picture of the investigation is outlined, the lawyers said. Some of the allegations raised against him “are empirically unfeasible,” the lawyers added.