Former Israeli intelligence officer Ari Ben-Menashe alleged that Mossad stole the PROMIS software from US company Inslaw, added a backdoor, and had media mogul Robert Maxwell sell the modified version to over 40 countries for $500M+, giving Israel access to their intelligence databases. Maxwell died mysteriously in 1991, falling from his yacht. His daughter Ghislaine later became entangled in the Epstein scandal.
“Maxwell peddled Promis with a backdoor allowing Mossad to extract data.”
From “crazy” to confirmed
The Claim Is Made
This is the moment they called it crazy.
When former Israeli intelligence officer Ari Ben-Menashe went public with allegations in the late 1980s and 1990s, he made a claim that seemed too elaborate to be credible: Israel's Mossad had stolen proprietary American software, weaponized it with a backdoor, and distributed it globally through a media magnate. The story involved a dead businessman, a missing daughter, and alleged espionage that would touch 40-plus nations. Most dismissed it as conspiracy fantasy.
The software in question was PROMIS, developed by the American company Inslaw in the early 1980s. It was a revolutionary program designed to manage legal and case information—the kind of system that intelligence agencies and law enforcement would find invaluable. The U.S. Department of Justice purchased a license but disputes arose over payments and the scope of use. By 1986, Inslaw founder William Hamilton accused the Justice Department of stealing the software and misrepresenting its capabilities. His company declared bankruptcy, financially destroyed by the dispute.
What made Ben-Menashe's story stand out was its specificity. He alleged that Mossad obtained a copy of PROMIS, inserted a hidden backdoor allowing Israeli intelligence to access any computer system running the software, and then enlisted Robert Maxwell—the British-American media mogul and father of Ghislaine Maxwell—to sell it to over 40 countries for at least $500 million. According to Ben-Menashe, this gave Israel access to classified intelligence databases worldwide, an unprecedented espionage advantage. Maxwell died in 1991 under mysterious circumstances, falling from his yacht off the Canary Islands.
The dismissal was swift. Authorities denied involvement. Media outlets labeled it a fringe theory. declined comment. For decades, the claim remained in the margins, repeated by researchers and alternative outlets but dismissed by mainstream institutions that preferred the simpler narrative: a contract dispute over software licensing.
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Yet elements of Ben-Menashe's account found corroboration. A 1992 investigation confirmed that PROMIS had indeed been disseminated to multiple foreign governments, though through official channels rather than Mossad's underground sales operation. U.S. congressional inquiries documented that Israeli intelligence had engaged in technology theft against American companies during this period. William Hamilton's lawsuit against the Justice Department proceeded for years, with courts acknowledging the government's improper conduct. Maxwell's sudden death remained unexplained.
The evidence never proved Ben-Menashe's allegations in full. Formal documentation of a Mossad-inserted backdoor never surfaced, and the story's most explosive claims remained unverified. But the underlying architecture of his story—Israel stealing software, PROMIS spreading globally, American agencies concealing their own misconduct—found documentary support. The claim wasn't entirely false; it wasn't entirely proven either.
This distinction matters profoundly. When institutions dismiss allegations entirely, they risk eroding credibility if even partial truths emerge later. The PROMIS affair illustrates how intelligence operations can blend fabrication with fact, making complete verification nearly impossible. It reveals why citizens struggle to trust official denials about espionage: because documented cases prove that deception was real. The claim may remain disputed, but dismissing it entirely ignores what the record actually shows.
Beat the odds
This had a 2.7% chance of leaking — someone talked anyway.
Conspirators
~200Network
Secret kept
34.5 years
Time to 95% exposure
500+ years
