[6] The company conducted online perception management, social media influencing/manipulation campaigns, opposition research, honey traps, and clandestine on-the-ground activities for clients.
Those services "included infiltrating target audiences with elaborately crafted social-media personas and spreading misleading information through websites meant to mimic news portals."
The document showed North Carolina as a case study of a state that was moved by social media manipulation to "poison the well" create "fake news" and "buzz".
[16] According to Republican party insiders, in 2016 Rick Gates, then-deputy chairman of the Trump campaign, reportedly sought Psy-Group's assistance in a scheme referred to as "Project Rome" from George Birnbaum.
[18] The project reportedly included multiple efforts aimed at assisting the Donald Trump campaign, ranging from opposition research to generation of fake online personas.
Nader reportedly told Trump Jr., that the crown princes of Saudi Arabia and the UAE were eager to help his father win the election, and Zamel pitched a social media manipulation campaign.
[26] Nader reportedly visited the White House 13 times in 2017 in order to meet Steve Bannon, Trump's chief strategist and campaign manager.
[27] In February 2018, FBI agents assisting Mueller traveled to Israel to interview employees of Psy-Group, the company whose founder, Joel Zamel, pitched psychological operations to the Trump campaign in 2016.
[9] People working for "Project Butterfly" included former Israeli national security advisor Yaakov Amidror and former Mossad deputy director Ram Ben-Barak.
[36][37] In June 2016, Catalyst filed a lawsuit against VimpelCom Ltd. for $750M over a breach of contract[35] and against West Face for the alleged use of insider information in its acquisition of WIND Mobile.
[34] According to a January 28, 2019 New York Times article, the "phenomenon of private spies drew widespread attention in 2017, when Black Cube was linked to the Harvey Weinstein affair.
The Times reported on a number of incidents involving Black Cube and Psy-Group, including a sting operation and defamation campaign against West Face.
"[37][43] According to the complaint, Psy-Group—whose operatives in the Canadian project allegedly included former Israeli television journalist Emmanuel Rosen—worked in tandem with Black Cube, publishing defamatory articles and social media posts about West Face and using sophisticated masking techniques to hide their tracks.
West Face learned of Black Cube and Psy-Group's activities when its employees recognized the image of Stella Penn Pechanac in news reports about rape and harassment accusations against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.
Pechanac was a Black Cube employee who reportedly posed as a woman's rights activist and who befriended actress Rose McGowan in a bid to gather intelligence on behalf of Weinstein.
[41][43] Rosen is alleged to have worked with Brooklyn-based public relations professional Virginia Jamieson in order to plant "highly negative media coverage" of then 74-year-old Newbould, who had retired from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in June 2017.
[33] On September 21, Virginia Jamieson,[34][38] gave the widely-respected, veteran National Post journalist, Christie Blatchford a USB flash drive which contained photographs and seemingly edited recordings of the two meetings with Newbould.
[34] In the third week in March 2021, an Ontario Superior Court Justice, Cary Boswell, rejected Catalyst and Black Cube's requests to seal records to protect undercover agents.
"[32] An email correspondence between Black Cube and Psy-Group agents said that, "Basically we’re trying to prove that he’s a racist, a depraved anti-Semite, and trying to find information that could paint him in as negative a light as possible.
"[32] According to a March 26, 2021 Globe and Mail article on the March 2021 Ontario Superior Court trial in Catalyst v. West Face, that made relevant documents public, operatives working for Psy-Group and the Tel Aviv, Israel-based Black Cube are said to be "former members of the Israeli Defence Forces and the Mossad, the intelligence branch of the Israeli Defence Forces.
"[32] The Globe reported that in 2017, Catalyst had hired Tamara Global, a security company to prepare for the appeal of Newbould's 2016 Ontario Superior Court decision.
"[32] In January 2017, Zamel met with Ahmed al-Assiri (who was implicated in the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi[45][46]) and Trump adviser Michael Flynn in regards to Iran.
[2] Psy-Group and Black Cube approached the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs and offered their services to fight against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement that was rejected.