The private intelligence firm has been embroilled in several scandals in the past decade, ranging from a 2017 report by The New Yorker that Black Cube helped Harvey Weinstein to track women who made allegations against him, to allegations by the Israeli television show Uvda that the firm spied on then-Finance Minister Yair Lapid.
Black Cube said that company is in turn owned by Oryx Shipping of Piraeus, Greece, which is owned by the Syrian Malah family. Black Cube found that the family owns a number of shell companies registered in the Marshall Islands, Panama and Britain, all of which are listed at the same corporate address in Piraeus, the ministry said. Black Cube said that Oryx Shipping’s fleet of ships is insured by Islamic P&I Club, which the Environment Ministry said is among the few entities that also insure Iranian ships.
The Emerald is owned via a complex structure by the Malah family of Syria, according to information given by a private intelligence firm to Environmental Protection Ministry