The US department of the treasury’s office of foreign assets control (Ofac) sanctioned five individuals and one entity associated with the Intellexa consortium on Monday, including individuals connected to Cyprus and Greece.

The individuals and entity were sanctioned “for their role in developing, operating and distributing commercial spyware technology that presents a significant threat to the national security of the United States,” Ofac said.

“These designations complement concerted US government actions against commercial spyware vendors, including previous sanctions against individuals and entities associated with the Intellexa consortium; the department of commerce’s addition of commercial spyware vendors to the entity list; and the department of state’s visa ban policy targeting those who misuse or profit from the misuse of commercial spyware, subsequently exercised on thirteen individuals,” it added.

According to the Cyprus News Agency, Felix Bitzios is the individual with Greek citizenship, while two others have the Cypriot citizenship.

Ofac named “Felix Bitzios, Andrea Nicola Constantino Hermes Gambazzi, Merom Harpaz, Panagiota Karaoli, Artemis Artemiou and the Aliada Group Inc.” as being responsible or having contributed to “a significant threat to the national security, foreign policy, or economic health or financial stability of the United States.”