Fact check: Firm founded by Rishi Sunak’s father-in-law made 2015 acquisition
The founder of the takeover target was an Israeli entrepreneur.
A widely shared thread of posts on social media site X, formerly Twitter, has claimed, among other things, that “Rishi Sunak’s Step Father bought an Israeli Based Intelligence Company that was founded by the Former Director of Mossad”.
Evaluation
This claim contains three inaccuracies.
First, the company in question is a software company which sells customer-relations management tools.
Second, the founder of the company is not the former director of Israel’s spy agency Mossad, he only shares a name with a former Mossad director.
Finally, the man who bought the company is Rishi Sunak’s father-in-law, not his stepfather. In a later post this is acknowledged by the social media user.
The facts
In 2015 Indian IT company Infosys acquired Panaya, a firm which was founded in Israel.
What does Panaya do?
In the 2015 announcement, Panaya was described as “a leading provider of automation technology for large-scale enterprise software management”.
Who founded Panaya?
Panaya was founded by Yossi Cohen, a software entrepreneur who studied at Tel Aviv University.
Mr Cohen did serve in the Israeli Air Force, which is common in Israel because the country has compulsory military service for the majority of men and women.
But a picture of Mr Cohen which used to be featured on Panaya’s website, and a picture on his LinkedIn account, make clear he is not the same Yossi Cohen who once led Mossad.
What is the link to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak?
Mr Sunak is married to Akshata Murty. She is the daughter of Indian billionaire businessman Narayana Murthy, who is one of the co-founders of Infosys, which bought Panaya in 2015.
Links
First post in thread on X (archived)
Fourth post in thread on X (archived)
Infosys Completes Acquisition of Panaya (archived)
Panaya Management Team 2015 archive page
Israel Defence Forces (archived)
Yossi Cohen’s LinkedIn page (archived)
Al-Monitor – New Mossad chief brings touch of Bond, lots of reality to the job (archived)
Times of Israel – Ex-Mossad officials pan ‘power-crazy’ Yossi Cohen for alleged state secrets leak (archived)
BBC – Akshata Murty: Who is Rishi Sunak’s wife? (archived)
