- Spyware company NSO Group’s co-founder Shalev Hulio used an Israeli diplomatic passport to enter Panama in 2013, raising questions over the firm’s claims of independence from the Israeli state
- Migration records from Panama show Hulio entered the country in December 2013 using a diplomatic passport.
- Experts said the finding turns the spotlight on the possible ties between NSO Group and the Israeli state.
- Hulio denied “allegations concerning a diplomatic passport and my purported role as a representative of the State of Israel.”
Dozens of countries have deployed the powerful and controversial spyware tool Pegasus to surveil domestic and foreign targets.
Developed by Israeli firm NSO Group, the spyware has the capacity to gather a target’s most private information: it can infiltrate a cellphone to access its files, photos, and browsing history, and turn its microphone and camera into listening and seeing devices for government intelligence agents.
While Pegasus was supposed to be used to fight terrorism and serious crime, a 2021 investigation by a consortium of investigative media outlets, coordinated by the Paris-based nonprofit Forbidden Stories and including OCCRP, revealed how the software had been sold to autocratic governments around the world and used to spy on politicians, activists, and journalists.
NSO Group has long maintained that it does not operate the spyware tool on behalf of its clients, has no access to target data, and operates independently of the Israeli government. While the Israeli Defense Ministry must approve sales of Pegasus to foreign governments, NSO Group and Israeli officials have denied the existence of any formal links between the state and NSO Group.
Now, however, an investigation by OCCRP, Código Morse, and Shomrim can reveal that NSO Group co-founder Shalev Hulio travelled to Panama in 2013 on an Israeli diplomatic passport and told Panamanian immigration he would be staying at the Israeli embassy.
Credit: Ayaka Kudo/Yomiuri/The Yomiuri Shimbun via AFP; The headquarters of NSO Group in Herzliya, Israel, on April 26, 2021
John Scott-Railton from Citizen Lab, a research group at the University of Toronto that has studied Pegasus and NSO Group, said the finding “raises questions about NSO’s connections to the [Israeli] state.”
Eitay Mack, an Israeli lawyer and human rights activist, said the discovery of Hulio’s diplomatic passport raised the possibility that “the separation between the [Israeli] government and NSO is a smokescreen.”
NSO Group is useful for the Israeli government, Mack said, because foreign governments that may not have diplomatic ties with Israel still want access to Israeli spyware technology. NSO Group’s sales abroad help Israeli intelligence networks foster connections with their foreign counterparts.
“It’s an important tool for Israel to build its relationships, specifically with intelligence units in foreign countries,” Mack said. “It is one of Israel’s main tools for creating relations and keeping them stable – by providing services and having relationships of trust with intelligence and military establishments in these countries.”
Hulio said the “allegations concerning a diplomatic passport and my purported role as a representative of the State of Israel are entirely false and categorically denied.” The Israeli Ministries of Defense and Foreign Affairs did not respond to requests for comment.
Questions about Hulio’s diplomatic passport were sent to Panama’s Security Ministry, which oversees the country’s migration services, but a spokesperson said they could not provide any details due to an ongoing case related to alleged illegal wiretapping.
Credit: Hans Klaus Techt/APA-PictureDesk / APA-PictureDesk via AFP; NSO Group co-founder Shalev Hulio (left) attends a press conference in Vienna, Austria, on April 28, 2025
The details of Hulio’s diplomatic passport have been revealed alongside new testimony from a former intelligence officer in Morocco that confirms the North African country had access to Pegasus — despite its claims that it has not used the spyware. The findings come from a new collaborative investigation into NSO Group coordinated by Forbidden Stories. (Moroccan authorities and NSO Group did not respond to requests for comment on the findings.)
Hulio stepped down as CEO of NSO Group in 2022, and investors based in the U.S. took a controlling stake in the company last year. It’s not clear whether Hulio still has an Israeli diplomatic passport.
NSO Group did not respond to a request for comment.
‘Advance the Needs of the Israeli Government’
NSO Group sold Pegasus to Panama in 2012. Hulio was central to the sale, and signed the contract with the Panamanian government.
Panamanian migration records obtained by reporters show Hulio arrived at Tocumen airport in Panama City from the U.S. on a Copa Airlines flight on December 3, 2013, and used a diplomatic passport to enter the country. The records state Hulio’s visit was for “recreation” and list his profession as “diplomat.”
The records show the name “Shalev Holy,” which is the name Hulio used when signing the Pegasus contract with Panama. The personal identity number listed in the Panamanian migration records corresponds exactly with Hulio’s ID number on corporate records from Israel. The date of birth for Hulio in the Panama migration records matches with that on documents for companies registered by him in the U.K. and Luxembourg.
Reporters also confirmed that the migration officer who filed the record in 2013 was working at the Ministry of Public Security at the time of Hulio’s entry.
Credit: Niyi Fote/TheNEWS2 via ZUMA Press Wire/Alamy Stock Photo, View of Tocumen international airport in Panama.
Hulio’s diplomatic status is also referenced in documents that are part of an official investigation, launched in 2014, into alleged illegal wiretaps by Panamanian authorities.
A former high-ranking Panamanian official with knowledge of the investigation confirmed Hulio’s use of a diplomatic passport. The official cannot be named because he was not authorized to speak on the record.
Mack said NSO Group’s potential importance to Israel’s ambitions abroad could have been a reason for Hulio’s diplomatic passport.
“NSO worked in many sensitive places where no Israeli citizen could work without the help of the Israeli government to protect their operations and movements there,” Mack said. “[Companies like NSO Group] are not just advancing profits, they advance the needs of the Israeli government.”
The Panamanian wiretapping probe, which began after President Ricardo Martinelli left office in July 2014, focused on the allegedly illegal interception of the communications of more than 150 people, including political rivals, journalists, businessmen, judges, and even diplomats.
The investigation resulted in several cases against the former president and intelligence officials, some of which are ongoing.
Martinelli fled to the U.S., where he was arrested and spent a year in federal custody before being extradited to Panama to face charges of phone tapping. He was acquitted in 2021 by an appeal court after a tribunal determined that there was no evidence that he had ordered the interceptions. The former president has said that the case was politically motivated and part of a strategy to bar him from standing in elections.
Martinelli did not respond to a request for comment.
In 2023 Panama’s Supreme Court sentenced two other former officials to 50 months in prison for breaches of confidentiality and violations of the right to privacy related to Pegasus. Two other intelligence officials, who spent 11 years as fugitives, are reported to have surrendered to authorities in March 2026 and are currently awaiting sentencing in an embezzlement case, and are also facing another trial for privacy law offenses.
@OCCRP
