Cybersecurity executive charged with stealing and selling trade secrets to Russia
Peter Williams, a former general manager of US government defense contractor L3Harris’s cyber division Trenchant, is being sued for theft of trade secrets with the intent to sell them to an undisclosed Russian buyer.
According to the Department of Justice, Williams obtained seven trade secrets belonging to two unnamed companies between April 2022 and June 2025, “knowing and intending those secrets to be sold outside of the United States, and specifically to a buyer based in the Russian Federation.”
Court documents don’t say what trade secrets the defendant stole. What we do know is that Williams used to work as a Director and General Manager at L3Harris’ Trenchant division, which operates in the fields of computer network operations and vulnerability research and develops cyber weapons used for offense.
The indictment states that Williams “knowingly and without authorization copied, duplicated, downloaded, uploaded, altered, replicated, transmitted, delivered, sent, communicated, and conveyed” one trade secret to a Russian buyer.
The document doesn’t say what trade secrets were involved, and neither L3Harris nor Trenchant is being accused of any crimes or malpractices.
If found guilty, the US prosecutors are seeking forfeiture of all the defendant’s properties, including his house in Washington D.C., 22 high-value, luxurious watches, a light blue Louis Vuitton handbag, a woman’s Tiffany Lock Bangle with diamonds and gold, a light-blue Moncler jacket, diamond jewelry from Tiffany, and all of his cryptocurrency funds in accounts across seven banks and financial platforms.
The prosecution is seeking damages in the amount of $1.3 million.
According to The Register, Williams is a 39-year-old Australian national living in the United States. He began working as Director at Trenchant on October 23rd, 2024, and resigned on August 21st, 2025.
On its website, Trenchant says that little to no work is neither public nor publicized.
“We work with select customers who share our ethical standards and have a formal mandate to operate in this space,” it claims.
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