A British spy who was found dead trapped inside a bag in his apartment five years ago illegally hacked into secret information pertaining to former President Bill Clinton as a favor to a friend, UK media outlets first reported over the weekend.
According to The Sun and the Daily Mail, 34-year-old Gareth Williams, a Welsh MI6 operative and mathematician, was discovered in large gym bag in the bathtub of his London home. While one probe determined that his death was “unnatural” and potentially “criminally mediated”, the exact circumstances surrounding his demise have long remained a mystery.
Approximately one year after that investigation, Scotland Yard officials said that a review of the matter led them to conclude that it was likely Williams had simply locked himself in the bag and that nobody else was involved, even though there were no traces of his DNA on the lock used to seal the bag he was found in, and no palm prints were found on the bathtub either.
Does hacking shed new light on mysterious death?
Other theories suggest that he may have been poisoned, murdered by the Russian mafia to stop him from investigating money-laundering networks, killed by a lover during an unusual sexual encounter, or that he was murdered by MI6 or American agents after he found sensitive data or threatened to release secret intelligence to the public.
On Sunday, reports surfaced that Williams had obtained a guest list for an event scheduled to be hosted by Clinton as a favor to a friend, thus breaching his security clearance and angering his MI6 bosses. The hacking reportedly came at a time when the relationship between the British and US agencies was tense, and was a “diplomatic nightmare” for new MI6 director Sir John Sawers.
Voicemail messages that Williams, a cryptographer who had worked with the National Security Agency (NSA) in Washington before returning to the UK, had left for his friends and family had also been mysteriously deleted shortly after his death, the media outlets noted. The precise nature of his work remains classified, but may have involved cash flow tracking equipment.
Earlier this month, it was revealed that detectives investigating Williams’ death believe that he had been murdered, and that the killers left and re-entered his home through a skylight in order to cover their tracks. This claim, based on the fact that forensic equipment was moved even though the house was guarded, supports the theory that foul play was involved, his family said.
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