Ahead of the elections in Slovenia, representatives of an Israeli intelligence company met with the leader of the country's opposition party at the end of last year. Now, compromising videos with people linked to the party appeared on an "anti-corruption" website.
Representatives of the private intelligence company Black Cube landed in Ljubljana on 22 December last year, where they met Janez Janša, the leader of Slovenia's right-wing opposition party, according to a report presented by a group of journalists on Monday.
The company, founded and operated by former members of the Israeli defence establishment, works worldwide to help clients obtain settlements in legal disputes but has also been involved in political influence campaigns.
On Sunday (22 March), Slovenia's parliamentary elections will determine the composition of the country's 90-seat National Assembly. The previous elections in 2022 brought Robert Golob's liberal Freedom Movement (FM) party to power – displacing Janša's Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS).
However, the current Slovenian government, led by Golob, has seen its support decline sharply amid scandals and a broader shift to the right in politics. At the same time, polls place the SDS opposition party at around 30%, a clear lead over the incumbent government party, which has roughly 22%.
Ten days before the Slovenian elections, an anonymous website without any contact information ('anti-corruption2026.com') appeared online. It showed covertly recorded videos of prominent persons linked to the government party openly talking about their dealings. This, the report claims, is similar to what occurred before elections in Hungary in 2018 and 2022.
While the party reportedly claims that this was the first time they heard of Black Cube, they added that the company should be "honoured with a monument in Ljubljana" for saving taxpayers hundreds of millions of euros.
Seeing a pattern
The investigative report was drafted by Borut Mekina (Mladina weekly), Achiya Schatz (digital manipulation expert), Filip Dobranić (social media researcher), and Nika Kovač (8 March Institute). Kovač is known as the coordinator of the European Citizens' Initiative ‘My Voice, My Choice: For safe and accessible abortion’, which received a positive reply from the European Commission last month.
The investigation team stresses that corruption is unacceptable, and expects the Slovenian authorities to investigate the allegations and prosecute accordingly.
How was the meeting between Black Cube and SDS discovered? "The starting point was the appearance of the website," Kovač told The Brussels Times. "We recognised a pattern seen in other countries: fake business approaches, covert recording, anonymous publication and carefully timed release just before an election."
After bringing in journalists and experts to examine and research it properly, the reported 22 December meeting in Ljubljana came into focus. "The information about the meeting between Janša and Black Cube representatives was attained by the research journalist from Mladina magazine," she said.
The investigation team does not claim that the website was uploaded by Black Cube, nor does it claim that it was uploaded by Janša or his party. However, the researchers seem fairly convinced that the website was the work of the intelligence company because of the similarities with previous cases.
"When you compare them, you get a pattern that matches documented cases from other countries where Black Cube was involved," they said.
The private plane landed in Ljubljana on 22 December 2025. Flight radar data shows that it departed from Tel Aviv in the morning and arrived in Ljubljana after 3 hours. Credit: Jetphotos
Achiya Schatz, an Israeli expert on Influence Operations and Digital Manipulation, agrees with Kovač. "It shows the same pattern and modus operandi Black Cube has used in the past – fake identities, fake companies, fake phone numbers, an influence operation, and then disappearance. This is nothing new for them. Very few companies in the world can organise an operation of this sophistication."
It is clear from the parallel with the Black Cube operations in Hungary, and especially the timing of the release, that the operation is connected with the Slovenian parliamentary elections, Kovač explains. Importantly, however, someone in Slovenia paid them for that.
"These kinds of operations by foreign security agencies, state or private, are a clear threat to the nation's sovereignty and the democratic process," she said. "An important question is who paid for this interference in the elections. It’s up to the authorities to investigate what happened and inform the public about it."
Can it be concluded that the figures in the recordings are linked to corruption? “If there is any indication of corruption, it has to be taken seriously and prosecuted,” she replied.
Election influencing under the disguise of anti-corruption
"Investigating corruption allegations is extremely important, and I really hope that all these cases will be taken seriously and investigated," Schatz replied. "Even though the website claims to reveal corruption, this is not about anti-corruption. It's about influencing the election."
According to him, the content was released at a moment designed for maximum political impact. "If this were genuine anti-corruption journalism, it would be published in Slovenian, by an identifiable publisher, at a different time. Everything about this campaign indicates that corruption is not its main motive."
The team says that the contents of the website are being spread by the media ecosystem connected with Janša’s party and that the release has become one of the main talking points of their campaign.
Schatz is concerned about Black Cube's ties to Israeli intelligence bodies. "Its founders and senior figures are former military and intelligence officers, and that reputation is part of how they market themselves. We have seen some proximity to the Israeli government in the past, and that's worth noting."
"But it would be quite a leap to claim this is a state-directed operation without concrete proof. We should remember what Black Cube fundamentally is: a private company whose primary motivation is profit. They work for whoever pays them. In this case, the question that matters most is not whom they are connected to in Israel – it's who hired them and who paid the bill."
Unlike Israeli spyware exporters such as NSO or Intellexa, Black Cube’s overseas services do not appear to have been required to apply for a defence-export permit, which leaves them in a legal grey zone, he added. "As a result, oversight is patchy and usually comes only after a leak, complaint, or criminal investigation – often after the damage is already done.”
He warned that this type of influence operation might damage Israel's already strained international reputation. "The operation – run by an Israeli company, apparently on behalf of a foreign politician – is exactly what Israel does not need right now. I'm afraid that it could happen again, in Israel and elsewhere. Parliamentary elections are coming in Israel later this year."
A European Commission spokesperson declined to comment on the report.
At the invitation of the Slovenian authorities, the Commission recently arranged a roundtable in the country on how to protect the upcoming elections against disinformation and foreign manipulation. The illegal recording only came to light after the roundtable.
In a letter dated 18 March, ahead of the European Council in Brussels, Slovenia's Prime Minister Robert Golob informed EU leaders Ursula von der Leyen and António Costa about the findings in the investigative report and other media reports.
He called on the Commission to investigate the reports and refer the matter to the newly established European Centre for Democratic Resilience for an immediate threat assessment. "Considering who commissioned it and who carried it out, we see this as a case of grave interference in the fundamentals of European democracy."
Golob wrote that the facts in the reports about "a grave instance of foreign information manipulation and interference in Slovenia" have been mostly confirmed by the Slovenian Intelligence and Security Agency.
