Is Prolific Leaking Account Evleaks Under Federal Investigation?
Update:
We have written a revised and new article outlining the events that have transpired over the past months since the end of the IndieGoGo campaign. We wrote this article before a lot of other information surfaced that reveal evidence and concrete proof who was really wrong. We highly recommend reading this and the new updated article here.
One of the tech industry’s most prolific product leakers has gone dark. Evan Blass, better known by the Twitter account @evleaks, recently announced he is retiring after two years of leaking information on phones and tablets from companies like HTC, LG, Motorola and Samsung.
Evan Blass said, in an interview with The Next Web, that his leaving of the account has come down to money. He alleges that couldn’t monetize his Twitter stream with ads or sponsored tweets. His account was followed and closely watched by everyone in the tech industry for not only his accuracy in leaks but also how often he leaked information. The images, spec sheets, and information he leaked was right about 90% of the time which is a rarity with misinformation coming from these companies all too often.
A IndieGoGo campaign was set up to not only help get him some money but also help fund his medical bills. Evan has the debilitating disease best known as MS, and its affect on his life have become a daily struggle for him. The campaign was a flexible funding campaign, and only managed to raise $9,275 out of its $100,000 goal. The person behind the campaign best known as TK Tech News is now being accused of fraud and stealing parts of the funds to line his wife’s wallet. The credit card funds which IndieGoGo disputes via bank accounts is supposedly sitting in TK Tech News wife’s bank account. TK disputes this claim, saying Evan didn’t realize he needed to add his bank info to the campaign to get his money. Evan however is currently tweeting claims that TK has stolen his money and has not made an effort to correct this mistake.
TK has created a video with evidence to show that this is on Evan, and he’s done nothing wrong but help a fellow industry friend in need. TK has also decided to become a freelance journalist and has started by airing some dirty laundry about Evan’s true reason for leaving his prolific leaking account behind.
As TK alleged in the video; Evan left Evleaks behind because he is under a federal investigation for leaking trade secrets. While he may be in the right with leaking this information because he has freedom of press. Typically trade secrets are not a federal matter, but a civil matter- however, the government is looking to see if he illegally accessed the leaks. Blass now runs the risk of these companies suing him now that they now know his real identity. There is already one known precedent between Microsoft and industry leakers, which did lead to jail time, (though the leaker was one of their own).
Tk is requesting information on this in order to back up this claim, but it sounds almost crazy he would release his real identity after he is under investigation. His Twitter account was anonymous up until a few months ago, and we’ve seen police and the government struggle to link the anonymous account with its owner in the past.
Overall we are seeing a battle erupt over Twitter by both parties to attempt to prove they are right. Evan disputes the video above saying it was doctored, and TK continues to say his attorney and himself will release more evidence tonight and in the coming days. While TK may be airing Evan’s dirty laundry we are more interested in seeing who is right, and if Evan truly did leave because of a government investigation.
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We’ve reached out to Evan Blass for comment, but he hasn’t responded as of yet. TK continues to say he is not at fault and will back up his claims with images of bank accounts, emails, and other correspondences. Tell us in the comments what you think about this disagreement and if you think that Evan is really under federal investigation.