RISHI SUNAK’S family has been profiting from a business linked with Israeli military intelligence, investigative site Declassified UK has found.
The Prime Minister’s wife and his billionaire father-in-law Narayan Murthy retain lucrative stakes in Indian IT services company Infosys.
The firm was operating in Israel when it appointed the Israeli tech entrepreneur Uri Levine — a veteran of Unit 8200, an elite Israeli army cyber warfare division that spies on the country’s adversaries — to its board of directors in 2020.
Mr Levine, who served in Unit 8200 during a five-year spell in Israel’s military in the 1980s, remained on the board until April this year, Declassified reported.
In 2012, Infosys signed a memorandum of understanding with the Office of the Chief Scientist of Israel, to collaborate on research and development.
Three years later it acquired Panaya, a local tech firm, for around $200 million (£157m), though Mr Murthy, who co-founded Infosys, was critical of the deal.
Last year, Panaya hired Tal Arnon, who served 12 years in Israeli military intelligence prior to entering the private sector as its vice-president of research and development.
Mr Arnon was a senior officer in a special ops unit and became chief of communication in Technological Unit 8153 which, like Unit 8200, develops technology for Israeli special forces.
Mr Sunak faced criticism last year over his in-laws profiting from Infosys when the firm was still operating in Russia; he was urging British business to boycott Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine at the time.
His wife Akshata Murty was reportedly still collecting £11.5m in annual dividends from Infosys while it retained a staffed office and was paying subcontractors in the Russian capital to carry out IT services for a global client.
The Prime Minister and Infosys were contacted for comment.