[ISN] Trojan horse exec falls two flights

[InfoSec News]

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1118197312211

By YAAKOV KATZ
Jun. 8, 2005

Yitzhak Rath, CEO of the Modi'in Ezrahi [1] private investigation
firm, arrested two weeks ago in connection with the Trojan horse virus
industrial espionage affair, fell over the second floor railing in the
stairwell at the Hayarkon Police Station in Tel Aviv on Wednesday.  
Rath was hospitalized in Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv in serious and
unstable condition.

Deputy Tel Aviv police chief Lt.-Cmdr. Dani Hen appointed a senior 
officer to investigate the incident. Police said that while it 
appeared Rath - following an interrogation session with Fraud Squad 
investigators - jumped out of the window to commit suicide, other 
possibilities were also being investigated. 

Rath was arrested two weeks ago on suspicion his private investigation 
firm planted a Trojan horse virus inside the computers of his clients' 
competitors to steal classified commercial information. 

The Trojan horse affair has implicated a number of leading
companies in the country's largest-ever industrial espionage affair.
Senior managers from leading companies, including Bezeq subsidiaries
Yes and Pelephone and competing telecommunications giant Cellcom, were
arrested for allegedly using the virus to obtain classified
information from their competitors. Other companies accused were Meir
Car Imports (importers of Volvo and Honda) and the Tami-4 mineral
water retailer.

Rath's company was one of several PI firms which allegedly purchased 
the virus from Michael Haephrati - an Israeli living in London and 
currently facing extradition to Israel - which they used to spy on 
their client's competitors. 

Rath's attorney, Zion Amir, said Wednesday that if police determined 
his client tried committing suicide he would not be surprised. 

"This is a very serious matter," Amir said. "It makes no sense that 
police have been keeping him in custody for 18 days on suspicion he 
may have worked together with Haephrati. Under these circumstances it 
comes as no surprise that someone might commit suicide." 

[1] http://www.mei.co.il/english/about.html