A major player in a US cybersecurity firm denounced the Russian oligarch’s claim

US cybersecurity: A major figure in a defunct cybersecurity business has denied “wild” rumors about his purported ties to Russian billionaires. The early investor in IronNet, André Pienaar, is the founder and head of investor relations at C5 Capital, and he has stated that subsequent claims that the company was susceptible to undue influence from the Kremlin “completely mischaracterize the IronNet story.”

The FBI and the National Security Agency have warned that since at least 2020, “Russian military cyber actors” have been using IronNet to attack American infrastructure for espionage and damage.

IronNet, a start-up established by former NSA Director Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander, declared bankruptcy in October 2023 despite its lofty goals of revolutionizing how both public and private institutions defend against cyberattacks.

The National Security Expert and former workers’ testimonies were used by The Associated Press in its Friday story on IronNet’s “high-profile flameout,” which claimed that “questionable business practices” by C5 Capital and the company were a factor in the company’s demise.

According to the investigation, Pienaar had enabled a strong connection with Viktor Vekselberg, a Russian billionaire who has been sanctioned twice and who CNN has called “a key ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.”This relationship “may have left the firm vulnerable to meddling by the Kremlin,” the study claimed.

According to a Pienaar media report, the claims of connections to Vekselberg are “not new” and originate from a different 2017 dossier he referred to as “a wild conspiracy theory.”

Prior to this, Pienaar worked for the London-based intelligence consultancy company he created, G3 Good Governance Group. According to an AP report that cited a G3 co-founder, Pienaar had assisted Vekselberg in “cementing relationships with London’s rich and famous.”

According to Pienaar’s interview with the media, in the early 2000s, when he was still at G3, he conducted research on Vekselberg for an investor with interests in Russia. This led to meetings with the billionaire, but their collaboration ended there.

“In the intelligence business, when you collect intelligence, you often have to spend time with people that you wouldn’t invite home,” he said.

Pienaar emphasized that Vekselberg was never a customer of G3 and that they never had any kind of professional connection, although he was unable to specify how many times the two had met.

Media was informed by Pienaar that although he had assisted the same client in obtaining a title to an undeveloped manganese mine, which was later sold to Vekselberg, he was not engaged in the transaction and was not contacted.

Citing “South African business records” among other papers, the study supported the assertion that Pienaar had represented Vekselberg on the mine’s board of directors.

Pienaar has said that there are “massive challenges with the integrity of these records” and has pointed out errors and discrepancies related to his name, tenure, birthdate, and residential address, among other things. He has hypothesized that Russian “hacks” on the databases of South African firms may be the cause of the inaccuracies.

In response, Pienaar said that Vladimir Kuznetsov, one of Vekselberg’s advisors, was “an investor in Pienaar’s investment firm.”

He claimed to the media that while Kuznetsov was never an investor in C5, he had co-invested in a Danish business named Omada, in which Pienaar’s company had also put money, and that at this point he had done “the highest level of due diligence” on the man.

Retaliating to allegations that he supported a Russian music festival in Switzerland run by Vekselberg, Pienaar told a media report that he did not recall seeing Vekselberg at a classical music festival he attended in Lucerne, which Kuznetsov was a sponsor of.

“I went to listen to the orchestra, not to meet people,” stated Pienaar.

IronNet and its backer, C5, had contracts for $5.2 million; nevertheless, it was revealed that the cybersecurity company wiped down $1.3 million from C5 as “bad debt.”.

According to Pienaar’s media report, IronNet had in reality listed this as “uncollectible,” and this was because there had been an “agreed reduction” in the contract’s value.

Since then, Pienaar has assisted IronNet in shrinking into a smaller, private business, and he still thinks the organization can be very important in the cybersecurity field, even with its challenges in the public market.

“The IronNet mission is still ongoing,” Pienaar said. It is now again owned by the private sector, as it ought to be. It still has every client. The firm is doing crucial tasks in protecting the United States and its allies from cyberattacks, and we have high hopes for its future.”