Three former U.S. intelligence operatives admit to working as ‘hackers-for-hire’ for UAE
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/uae-hired-hackers-charged/2021/09/14/48cc1b80-159c-11ec-a5e5-ceecb895922f_story.html
There's probably a lot of this sort of thing going on. Not uncommon for analysts to do "consulting" for foreign governments once they've retired and/or entered the private sector.