Arabic version: كريس ويد يعود إلى مورويلومباه بعد مسيرة تقنية في الولايات المتحدة

According to ABC News, cybersecurity entrepreneur Chris Wade has returned to his home town of Murwillumbah on the New South Wales north coast after decades in the United States, where his career took him from a federal conviction to work with US authorities and meetings at the White House.

Wade, who learned to code on a Commodore 64 and assembled computers as a teenager, moved to the US at 21. In 2005, he was arrested after software he wrote was used in a spamming engine promoting financial scams. He was fined approximately $US70,000 and sentenced to two years’ probation. Wade later worked with FBI Special Agent Chris Tarbell on cybercrime investigations, including cases involving Silk Road and Anonymous, and was allowed to remain in the US.

He went on to co-found Corellium, which developed software enabling app developers to emulate Android phones and iPhones on a computer. Apple sued Corellium for copyright infringement in 2019, but a US court dismissed the lawsuit in December 2020. That same week, Wade received a presidential pardon from Donald Trump. Wade said former FBI agent Tarbell wrote a letter supporting his pardon application.

Corellium was bought by technology firm Cellebrite for $285 million last year. Wade was required to remain with the company and now serves as its chief technology officer. Cellebrite, which has more than 1,000 employees, makes mobile-forensics products used by law enforcement in the US and Australia after court approval.

Back in Murwillumbah, Wade bought the Riverview Hotel for $17.8 million in December last year rather than purchasing a supercar. He is also working on teaching a three-tonne welding robot to shake a cocktail, while continuing to focus on technology intended to help investigators keep pace with criminals and solve cases faster.