News & Media

By the I.R.D.I. Business Group® LLC Editorial Team

The Kingdom of Bahrain has long presented itself as a small Gulf nation seeking international partnerships, but new investigative findings reveal a far more troubling reality: Bahrain has quietly supported extremist networks and is now emerging as a significant financial backer of cybercriminal groups targeting the United States.

During our broader investigation into foreign cyber operations, the I.R.D.I. Business Group® LLC discovered that funding channels originating in Bahrain have been tied to hacker networks operating in India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and Japan—groups responsible for a series of highly destructive attacks on American companies from 2023 through 2025. Losses now exceed half a billion dollars, with small and mid-sized businesses suffering the brunt of the damage as their intellectual property was cloned, stolen, and resold on international markets.

The issue gained global visibility at the 2025 World Expo, where Bahrain’s pavilion became the focus of a human rights and employee abuse scandal. What began as a single whistleblower complaint from an American worker evolved into a larger exposé revealing that numerous U.S. companies had been targeted, monitored, and imitated using information obtained within Expo operations. At the center of Bahrain’s international activity is BLR World—formerly Barker Langham Recruitment—a UK-origin firm now functioning as a front company to rehabilitate the global image of regimes connected to extremist financing. Evidence shows BLR World, while committing Human Rights violations, also engaged in predatory, discriminatory business practices while simultaneously attempting to copy and appropriate the business culture of forward-leaning California industries.

BLR World, along with several other firms and senior Expo-connected figures, is now part of a human rights whistleblower case documenting systemic abuses and covert partnerships benefiting Bahrain’s national agenda. At the same time, Bahrain continues to receive hundreds of millions of dollars from the United States through oil imports. America purchases approximately 6.48 million barrels of Bahraini oil annually, despite producing 148 million barrels of its own each year—more than enough domestic capacity to absorb the difference without relying on foreign suppliers known to fund cybercrime and extremist activity. Simply put, the United States does not need Bahrain’s oil, but Bahrain depends heavily on American money.

The pattern extends regionally: Bahrain is a supporter of Hamas and has hosted its leadership in Doha while simultaneously becoming entangled in its own human-rights controversies. Yet the United States continues to enter into business and economic relationships with states whose values and activities fundamentally oppose American security. In 2023, I.R.D.I. Business Group® LLC identified a Japan-based multinational cybercrime group with activity tracing back to Bahrain. That group executed sophisticated attacks against American firms, infiltrating systems, cloning operations, and stealing proprietary business information.

The evidence shows a clear chain: Bahraini interests have been financing hacker groups throughout Asia that directly target American businesses. Despite this, billions in U.S. dollars continue to flow to states whose political and ideological objectives run contrary to American national security. The question, then, is why?

Why does the United States continue providing financial resources to nations that have openly and covertly acted against American interests? Why do we continue strengthening regimes that undermine our businesses, our industries, and the economic foundation of our communities?

These actions defy logic and common sense. American consumers and policymakers must become globally conscious—not by scrolling through online videos, but by examining the core values and behavioral patterns of nations we empower through trade. Bahrain is known to support extremist organizations, including Hamas and affiliated networks. This alone should trigger an immediate halt to all business, financial, and economic partnerships with Bahrain. Every contract, every trade agreement, every economic link should be reviewed, frozen, or discontinued. America must stop providing resources to governments that fund cybercrime, enable extremist ideologies, and facilitate attacks on American companies.

Bahrain’s role in supporting the Japanese cybercrime ring that has inflicted more than $500 million in damages on American businesses is proof that this is no abstract threat—it is real, active, and ongoing. The United States has the domestic capability to replace every barrel of oil imported from Bahrain. We have alternative international partners.

We have a moral and strategic responsibility to defend our businesses from foreign states that engage in covert economic warfare. It is time to act with clarity. It is time to disengage from Bahrain. America must stop funding the very forces working to undermine its security, industries, and economic resilience. The solution is simple: we do not need Bahrain’s oil, and we do not need to financially empower nations that support extremist groups or fund international hacker operations targeting the United States.

We understand we cannot cut all ties with the Middle East. But we can take a step in the right direction and tailor our financial resources to support countries that are not openly attacking us. That means cutting all contracts with Bahrain.

The longer we continue these economic relationships, the more damage American businesses will suffer.

The time to correct this course is now.