Information security experts say Washington Post's Jeff Bezos phone was hacked in May 2018 • Five months later, journalist Jamal Hashokji was eliminated

Report: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Salman Peretz to Amazon's founder Billionaire Jeff Bezos's personal phone in 2018, after receiving a message from Wattsap that was apparently sent from Saudi Arabia's personal account.

According to the report, the encrypted message included a hacking file that infiltrated the world's richest person, according to digital forensics results. The analysis found that the penetration into the phone was likely triggered by an infected video file sent from the Saudi heir to Bezos, the owner of the Washington Post.

The two had a friendly wetsup call, and on May 1, 2018, the breakout file was sent. Apparently, a large amount of data was copied from Bezos's phone within hours. It is unknown what was taken from the phone and what was done in the information.

Jeff Bezos // Photo: AP

The discovery may raise tough questions for the Saudi kingdom about the circumstances surrounding how the US tabloid The National Enquirer came to publish intimate details about Bezos's private life - including text messages - nine months later. The disclosure also could lead to a re-examination of what the Saudi regent and his inner circle did in the months leading up to the murder of Jamal Hashokji, a Washington Post journalist killed in October 2018 - five months after the alleged hacking of the newspaper's phone.

Saudi Arabia has previously denied that it broke into Bezos' phone, insisting that Khokhaji's murder was the result of "rogue action." In December, a Saudi court convicted eight people involved in the murder, following a trial in closed doors.