Cyprus Confidential is the offshore investigation carried out by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and 65 media companions, together with The Indian Express, scrutinizing 3.6 million leaked paperwork from six Cyprus-based offshore service suppliers.

Data from one of many service suppliers, Cryptodirect, provides a uncommon glimpse into operations of Verint Systems headquartered in Melville, New York, and with a community of workplaces worldwide.

In 2021, Verint spun off a brand new firm referred to as Cognyte, solely to cater to Governments, and has since confronted criticism for allegedly promoting spy ware to “repressive regimes.”

Official Israel firm registration data present a path of companies altering their names: Efrat Infomedia Ltd modified to Comverse Infosys Ltd; after which to Verint Systems Ltd and, lastly, to Cognyte Technologies Israel Ltd in 2020.

There are a number of construction charts of the Verint/Cognyte group which can be among the many Cyprus Confidential dataset which present the cross-holdings of the group corporations together with different Cyprus-based companies, Permadeal Limited and Almoglow. The final firm, data present, was arrange for absorbing the belongings and liabilities of one other firm, UTX Technologies, and was wound up after a yr and Permadeal was arrange in Cyprus additionally for “holding of investments.”

On November 16, 2020, data present, Verint Systems Ltd spun off Cognyte Technologies Israel Ltd – this was introduced on February 1, 2021.

In December that yr, Cognyte was on the centre of an argument when Meta printed a report on the “surveillance-for-hire” trade and named Cognyte as one in every of seven corporations it referred to as “cyber mercenaries.”

Meta alleged that whereas these corporations declare their companies goal solely criminals and terrorists, an investigation by its cyber espionage unit discovered that their focusing on was way more indiscriminate: it included “journalists, dissidents, critics of authoritarian regimes, families of opposition members and human rights activists.”

Meta claimed these seven surveillance suppliers had been based mostly in international locations like India, Israel and China, and that it had disrupted their actions and banned them from utilizing their companies.

Meta alleged that Cognyte “sells entry… which allows managing pretend accounts throughout social media platforms together with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and different web sites to social-engineer and accumulate knowledge.’’

Following the Meta report, Cognyte confronted a slew of authorized challenges within the type of class actions from its shareholders, who alleged that the corporate had withheld info and offered reconnaissance instruments and companies that violated neighborhood requirements exposing the corporate to important monetary and reputational threat.

In March this yr, The Financial Times (London) had reported that following the Pegasus scandal — revelations that some Indians had been on the potential goal record of Israeli agency NSO’s Pegasus spy ware — India was in search of “rival” spy ware and was “seeking to spend up to $120 million through new spyware contracts.” The report particularly talked about Cognyte as more likely to be within the working.

The Government had denied any buy of NSO’s Pegasus software program for surveillance and on August 25, 2022, a Supreme Court-appointed committee acknowledged that they had discovered no conclusive proof on use of spy ware in telephones examined. But then Chief Justice N V Ramana additionally famous that the Government “had not co-operated”with the knowledgeable panel.

Cyprus Confidential knowledge, together with filings with the US market regulator in 2020, present Verint has listed as many as 69 subsidiary corporations worldwide, together with 4 in India.

These are: Verint CES India Private Limited; Verint Cyber Intelligence Solutions India Private Limited; Verint Systems (India) Private Ltd; and Witness Systems Software (India) Private Limited. Following the 2021 “spin-off of Cognyte globally, Cognyte Analytics India grew to become a part of the corporate’s presence in India.

In New Delhi, the listed deal with of Cognyte Analytics India Private Limited in Bhikaji Cama Place is the workplace of its chartered accountants marking the corporate’s “registered address.” The workplace of Verint CES India Private Limited is in Aerocity close to Delhi airport, with a employees of round 50.

In response to questions, the corporate’s representatives mentioned that Cognyte was not part of the current firm, Verint CES India Private Limited.

A scrutiny of the steadiness sheets of those Indian subsidiaries reveals {that a} substantial share of their income comes from the group’s overseas subsidiaries, on this case, situated in Israel and Hong Kong.

For occasion, throughout the yr ended March 2021, Verint CES India Pvt Ltd posted a complete income of Rs 128.21 crore and had a internet revenue of Rs 8.05 crore.

In the identical yr, income from companies rendered by it to Verint Americas Inc, USA — its holding firm and thus a associated social gathering— amounted to Rs 60.61 crore, just below half of its complete income for the yr.

Moreover, Verint CES India additionally had a monetary transactions with a subsidiary in Israel — Cognyte Technologies Israel Limited. While Verint CES India bought items value Rs 21.84 crore and tangible belongings value Rs 15.96 lakh from Cognyte Technologies Israel, it earned income from this Israeli subsidiary amounting to Rs 3.32 crore for providing companies.

In one other associated social gathering transaction, Verint CES India earned revenues of Rs 2.02 crore from one other fellow subsidiary in Hong Kong — Verint Systems (Asia Pacific) Ltd, HK for service export.

As for Cognyte Analytics India Pvt Ltd, within the yr ended March 2023, the corporate noticed its complete income decline to Rs 41.6 crore. In the yr ended March 2022, it stood at Rs 55 crore. The internet revenue additionally declined to Rs 6.13 crore in March 2022 after which to Rs 3.04 crore in March 2023.

A scrutiny of the latest monetary assertion for one more Indian subsidiary, Verint Systems (India) Private Limited, for the yr ending March 2022 reveals that the corporate has had a number of run-ins with the Income Tax Department in India. Balance sheets present that it has penalty proceedings in progress with Rs 32 lakh due for the yr 2010-11. The most up-to-date “disputed” quantity is for the yr 2017-18, for alleged “disallowance of expenses” totalling Rs 4.8 crore.