Ex-L3Harris Trenchant executive jailed as US sanctions Russian zero-day broker Operation Zero

A former L3Harris executive, Peter Williams, was sentenced to 87 months (about seven years) in U.S. federal prison after pleading guilty to theft of trade secrets tied to the removal and sale of at least eight zero-day exploit components/cyber tools from Trenchant (L3Harris’ specialized unit supplying exploits to the U.S. government and select allies). Prosecutors said the stolen materials were intended for restricted government use; Williams allegedly leveraged his access over several years, received about $1.3 million in cryptocurrency, and the theft was estimated to have caused $35 million in losses to the contractor. Court reporting also noted Williams’ prior service with Australia’s signals intelligence community and that Trenchant traces back to L3Harris’ acquisition of Australian exploit-focused firms.

The U.S. Treasury’s OFAC simultaneously imposed sanctions on Operation Zero—a St. Petersburg-based Russian exploit brokerage—and its founder Sergey Zelenyuk, citing national security risks from acquiring and reselling zero-days and related tooling that could enable ransomware or other malicious activity. U.S. officials said Operation Zero obtained the stolen Trenchant tools and then resold them to unauthorized users, and multiple reports linked the sanctions action to the Williams case (where the buyer was previously anonymized in court as “Company 3”). Reporting also described Operation Zero’s public market for high-value mobile and app exploits (including past offers for Android, iOS, and Telegram), its marketing toward non-NATO customers and foreign intelligence services, and additional U.S. measures including State Department sanctions and action under the Protecting American Intellectual Property Act, plus sanctions on an affiliated UAE entity Special Technology Services (STS) and other associated parties.