Walter Soriano

Last updated

Walter Soriano
Walter Soriano.jpg
Born
Walter Zvi Soriano

(1967-12-24) 24 December 1967 (age 56)
Argentina
NationalityBritish
Israeli
OccupationBusinessman
Website https://waltersoriano.com

Walter Zvi Soriano (born 24 December 1967) is a British-Israeli businessman.[ citation needed ] He is CEO and owner of several companies, including USG Security Ltd., a UK-based firm specializing in litigation support, crisis management and asset tracing, and WSLM, a real estate management company. [1] [2] [3] Soriano is a family friend of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. [4]

Contents

Early life

Soriano was born in Argentina, and immigrated to Israel as a young man. He served in the Israel Defense Forces and later moved to London. [4]

Career

On 3 October 2002 Soriano set up an international security company called the Universe Security Group, based in London. The company's board of directors also included Nahum Admoni, who served as the Director-General of the Mossad from 1982 to 1989, and Uri Sagi, former head of the Military Intelligence Directorate, and Albert Raes, Former Director of the Belgian State Security Service (VSSE) from 1977 to 1990. [5]

In 2004, Universe Security Group was appointed by the AMP (Panama Maritime Association) as a RSO (Recognized Security Organization) to certify ship security plans in accordance with the ISPS (International Ship and Port Facility Security) code. [6]

Between 2004 and 2010 , Universe security Group did render security services worldwide to prominent companies , Airports, Ports, and celebrities from the entertainment & sport area.

In 2007, Soriano and Universe Security Group were involved in a trade deal to sell three Bell 212 helicopters, which served the Spanish Fire Department, to the Georgian Ministry of Defense for civil transportation purposes, through the mediation of Gal Hirsch, a former Israeli brigadier general, while Hirsch served as an adviser to the Georgian Defense Minister. [7]

Between 2008 and 2011, Soriano was hired also by billionaire entrepreneur Ruth Parasol and her then-husband Russ DeLeon to help resolve a criminal investigation that took place against them in the United States, for allegedly violating the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. Following Soriano's involvement, Parasol's company, PartyGaming, eventually entered a non-prosecution agreement with the Justice Department. [3]

In 2010 Soriano founded a company called USG Security. In that same year, another company named Universe Security Group dissolved. The company "provides security, ,Litigation support, intelligence, investigation and Banking Compliance services to private and corporate clients in the UK and around the world", according to its website. [2]

In 2013, Soriano founded "WS London Management" (WSLM), a real estate company based in London. [8] [9]

Soriano owns or co-owns other companies, including "Tov 7", "Tov 77", and "Crossroads Property 2", companies that are engaged in real estate development and management in the UK. [10] [11] [12] He was also previously the owner of "Football Universe Limited" and acted as Diego Maradona's official European representative. [13]

In June 2019, it was reported that Soriano was asked to participate voluntarily in a closed-door hearing by the United States Senate on Russia's interference in the 2016 US presidential election. [14] [15] However, the Senate's intelligence committee's report eventually concluded that Soriano did only introduced Russian businessmen Oleg Deripaska and Dmitri Rybolovlev to Israeli company Psy Group for private projects related to commercial litigations, and found no connection to the US elections. [16]

In March 2020, Soriano founded the Anti-Cyberbullying Association in the UK. [17] According to its website, the association is "working (together) to end cyberbullying" through legislation and regulation. [18]

In May 2020, Soriano joined the board of directors of PAVOCAT, a company that provides anti-corruption services to companies and governments. [19] [20]

In 2000, Soriano was one of the founders of an association commemorating the name and memory of Jonathan Netanyahu, brother of Benjamin Netanyahu, who was killed in Operation Entebbe. [3] That same year, Soriano produced "Yoni", a film about Jonathan Netanyahu's life, directed by Semion Vinokur. The film incorporated archived materials from various sources, including the IDF video archives, the IDF spokesman archives, and the Netanyahu family. [21]

After Netanyahu lost the elections to Ehud Barak in 1999, he temporarily retired from politics and went into private business. During that time, according to Soriano, he worked with Netanyahu on a number of high-tech ventures in the United States. In 2002, Soriano recruited Netanyahu for paid lectures at fundraising evenings held in Mexico City for the "Lev Malka Organization", which helps patients from low-income families. The story was published by Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, which claimed that Netanyahu was paid $180,000 for two days of work. Soriano confirmed to the newspaper that while living in Jerusalem, he had close ties with Netanyahu and that their relationship was based on "years of deep friendship, devoid of any external interests". [22]  

In early 2018, Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh was interviewed by Israeli journalist Ilana Dayan. In the interview, Alsheikh said, among other things, that private investigators are gathering information against Lahav 433 officers involved in investigating Netanyahu's cases. Media reports started when Raviv Drucker on Israeli Army Radio, raised the possibility that Walter Soriano was behind this activity, which both Soriano and Netanyahu denied. Netanyahu added that he has not met Soriano or talked to him since 2010. No proof of Soriano's involvement was ever published. [3] Israeli news site Behadrey Haredim stated that they received a letter from Alsheikh to Soriano dated February 2018, in which Alsheikh wrote that in his statements regarding the affair Soriano's name was never mentioned nor suggested: "Regarding the statements of the police commissioner published in the show "Ovda" on 7.2.18, no specific individual's name was mentioned as a suspect for policemen monitoring, by himself or by an agent, not even by inference, directly or indirectly" and also that "all publications regarding this subject were done solely undedr the publisher's discretion, and on their responsibility". [23]

Over the past several years, Soriano has initiated several lawsuits and legal disputes involving information or articles published about him.

In February 2018, Soriano filed a ILS 500,000 defamation claim against Israeli Journalist Raviv Drucker, and in May 2019 filed a second claim for ILS 580,000 against Drucker, together with the website HaAyin HaShevi'it, journalist Oren Persico and editor Shuki Tausig, claiming all four have been coordinating to publish stories to harm his reputation. [24]

In March 2018, Soriano sued Israeli news site Behadrey Haredim for ILS 300,000 following two articles they published alleging Soriano's involvement in the Roni Alsheikh case. On 26 December 2019 the two parties agreed to a settlement in which the news site agreed to remove the articles about Soriano, issue an apology and donate 35,000 NIS to charity. [23]

In October 2019, Soriano sued Twitter in Dublin for defamation in order to "stop false and malicious allegations about him online". [25] In an interview for the Daily Telegraph in 2020, his lawyers stated that he plans to issue a complaint with the UK's information commissioner in relation to Google's alleged dissemination of "false and malicious allegations" . [26]

In 2020, Soriano sued US-based Forensic News and several of its journalists for defamation and breaches of the European GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations). On 1 January 2021 the UK court handed down an opinion on whether the case could be brought in the UK, accepting that he could bring the Libel claim in UK courts, and stating that the other claims could not be brought. [27] The Court of Appeal affirmed the jurisdictional issues in December 2021, and re-instituted the GDPR jurisdictional questions. [28] On 30 June 2022 two reporters for Forensic News, Robert DeNault and Jess Coleman, issued public statements in which they apologized for their authoring role in the series of Forensic News posts concerning Walter Soriano, acknowledging that the publications were "based on circumstantial and inadequate evidence" that "has not been independently verified". The statements were issued as part of a settlement in which, in addition to the statements, both reporters agreed to remove from the Internet and their social media accounts all statements concerning Soriano over which they have control. [29] [30] [31]

In August 2023, Soriano's defamation lawsuit filed in 2019 against the "HaAyin HaShevi'it" was rejected in its entirety and the judge ruled that it was a silence lawsuit and required the plaintiffs to pay expenses of NIS 84,000. [32] Soriano stated that he is going to appeal the decision. [33] [34] [35]

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References

  1. ↑ "Walter Soriano, CEO of USG Security, shares expert insights into tackling COVID-19 business challenges". finance.yahoo.com. 27 August 2020. Archived from the original on 9 September 2021. Retrieved 21 September 2020.
  2. 1 2 "USG Security - About Us". USG SECURITY. Archived from the original on 20 September 2020. Retrieved 21 September 2020.
  3. 1 2 3 4 מענית, חן; שניידר, טל (12 February 2018). "חידת סוריאנו: מי האיש ששמו נקשר בסכסוך בין המפכ"ל לרה"מ" [The Soriano Mystery: Who is the man whose name was tied to the conflict between the chief of police and the prime minister]. Globes (in Hebrew). Archived from the original on 27 September 2020. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
  4. 1 2 Mendick, Robert (26 January 2020). "I'm being smeared, says Diego Maradona's ex-agent in row over Senate inquiry into Russian election interference". The Telegraph. ISSN   0307-1235. Archived from the original on 27 November 2020. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
  5. ↑ "Walter Soriano - companies registration". Archived from the original on 31 March 2022. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
  6. ↑ "Panama acts to avoid bottleneck". www.mundomaritimo.cl. Archived from the original on 19 November 2011. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
  7. ↑ Megiddo, Gur (12 August 2019). "עסקת המסוקים, החילוץ והמייל לנתניהו: הקשר בין גל הירש לאיש הסוד של ראש הממשלה" [The helicopter deal, the rescue and the email to Netanyahu: the connection between Gal Hirsch and the prime minister's secret man]. TheMarker (in Hebrew). Archived from the original on 8 December 2020. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  8. ↑ "WS LONDON MANAGEMENT LIMITED". Companies House Gov UK. Archived from the original on 31 March 2022. Retrieved 21 September 2020.
  9. ↑ "About Us". Walter Soriano London Management. Archived from the original on 11 August 2020. Retrieved 21 September 2020.
  10. ↑ "Companies House Gov UK". Archived from the original on 27 February 2021. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
  11. ↑ "Walter Soriano - companies registration". Archived from the original on 31 March 2022. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  12. ↑ "WS London Management website". Archived from the original on 11 August 2020. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  13. ↑ Wollaston, Steve (4 June 2016). "Diego Maradona on what Roberto Di Matteo will bring to Aston Villa". BirminghamLive. Archived from the original on 11 August 2016. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
  14. ↑ Bertr, Natasha (5 June 2019). "Senate Intelligence Committee summons mysterious British security consultant". POLITICO. Archived from the original on 8 April 2021. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
  15. ↑ "Report: US Senate asks to interview Israeli-Brit in connection with Russia probe". The Times of Israel . 19 June 2019. Archived from the original on 25 February 2021. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  16. ↑ "REPORT ON RUSSIAN ACTIVE MEASURES, CAMPAIGNS AND INTERFERENCE IN THE 2016 U.S. ELECTION, VOLUME 5" (PDF). U.S. Senate Select Committee of Intelligence. 25 July 2019. Archived (PDF) from the original on 22 January 2021.
  17. ↑ "Businessman Walter Soriano Announces New UK Anti-Cyberbullying Initiative". in.style.yahoo.com. Archived from the original on 8 June 2020. Retrieved 21 September 2020.
  18. ↑ "About Us". The Anti-Cybrebullying Association. Archived from the original on 1 November 2020.
  19. ↑ "Walter Soriano joins PAVOCATs board of directors". International Business Times. 5 June 2020. Archived from the original on 20 October 2020.
  20. ↑ "WALTER SORIANO Investigation And Litigation Support Expert". PAVOCAT Group. Retrieved 21 September 2020.
  21. ↑ "Walter Soriano Productions" produced a film about Jonathan Netanyahu. see:
    "Yoni: The Life of Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Netanyahu". YouTube. 13 January 2014. Archived from the original on 25 May 2019. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  22. ↑ Betito, Merav; Yehezkeli, Zadok (9 March 2010). "Million Shekel BiBI". Yedioth Ahronoth (in Hebrew). Archived from the original on 11 October 2021. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  23. 1 2 "פורום: בחדרי חרדים - מערכת "בחדרי חרדים" תתרום 35 אלף ש"ח ל"יד אליעזר" – בחדרי חרדים". www.bhol.co.il. Archived from the original on 22 October 2021. Retrieved 21 October 2021.
  24. ↑ Medido, Gur (17 December 2019). "וולטר סוריאנו תבע כדי להישאר אלמוני - והשיג בדיוק את ההפך" [Walter Soriano sued to remain anonymous - and achieved the opposite]. TheMarker (in Hebrew). Archived from the original on 21 August 2020. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  25. ↑ Tighe, Mark (6 October 2019). "Security expert Walter Soriano sues Twitter in Dublin for defamation". The Times. Archived from the original on 22 August 2020. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  26. ↑ Mendick, Robert (25 January 2020). "I'm being smeared, says Diego Maradona's ex-agent in row over Senate inquiry into Russian election interference". The Daily Telegraph . Archived from the original on 27 November 2020. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  27. ↑ "Soriano v Forensic News LLC & Ors [2021] EWHC 56 (QB) (15 January 2021)". www.bailii.org. Archived from the original on 15 January 2021. Retrieved 21 October 2021.
  28. ↑ "Soriano v Forensic News LLC & ors". 5RB Barristers. Archived from the original on 7 January 2022. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  29. ↑ @jesskcoleman (30 June 2022). "This page doesn't exist" (Tweet). Retrieved 8 March 2023– via Twitter.
  30. ↑ @robertjdenault (30 June 2022). "This page doesn't exist" (Tweet). Retrieved 8 March 2023– via Twitter.
  31. ↑ "UK Businessman Walter Soriano Receives Apologies From Journalists In Connection To Ongoing Legal Dispute". www.wsfa.com. 13 July 2022. Retrieved 27 July 2022.
  32. ↑ ורטהיים, דוד (14 August 2023). "הפסד לסוריאנו ובומבך: נדחתה תביעת הדיבה נגד "העין השביעית"". וואלה!.
  33. ↑ Oren Persico, "The Seventh Eye", "מפלה לסוריאנו ובומבך: "המסקנה בלתי נמנעת: תביעת סוריאנו הינה תביעת השתקה https://www.the7eye.org.il/494617
  34. ↑ Oren Persico "The Seventh Eye" שתי תביעות שהגיש וולטר סוריאנו נגד רביב דרוקר נדחו ונפסק כי הן "תביעות השתקה" https://www.the7eye.org.il/494690
  35. ↑ Yasmin Gueta "Haaretz" מקורבו המולטי־מיליונר של נתניהו ניסה להשתיק את התקשורת – וישלם עשרות אלפי שקלים https://www.haaretz.co.il/law/2023-08-15/ty-article/.premium/00000189-f8ea-da43-afff-fdef322b0000?gift=2beef7919a8942eca0ded0989b144d2d
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