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South African technology investor André Pienaar, founder of London-based C5 Capital, has been drawn into a legal fight in Washington, where he is accused of taking part in an influence campaign to help Amazon win a $10 billion U.S. Defense Department cloud-computing contract.
The allegation comes from Oracle executive vice president Kenneth Glueck, who filed a defamation suit against Pienaar and Washington lobbyist Juleanna Glover in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Glueck claims the pair falsely told journalists last year that he fabricated information in presentations he shared with U.S. lawmakers and law enforcement beginning in 2018.
Security entrepreneur faces JEDI contract allegations
At the center of his complaint is Amazon’s bid for the Pentagon’s Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, known as the JEDI contract — a planned 10-year project that became the focus of a high-stakes battle among the world’s largest cloud providers. Glueck alleges that Pienaar and his associates used improper methods to give Amazon Web Services an advantage. He is seeking damages, with the amount to be determined by the court.
According to the filing, Pienaar bought SBD Advisors, a Washington consultancy founded by former Pentagon aide Sally Donnelly, in four installments totaling $1.56 million between 2017 and 2022. Donnelly had left the firm to join the Defense Department in 2017, where she advised then-Defense Secretary James Mattis. Before her government role, SBD had lobbied on Amazon’s behalf. Glueck alleges Donnelly later pushed Amazon’s case inside the Pentagon, helping shape the JEDI contract.
Pienaar has previously denied both buying Donnelly’s firm and working with Amazon on cloud contracts. Glueck, however, cites records and emails that he says contradict those denials, including a 2016 note in which Pienaar discussed a joint presentation tour with AWS to promote cloud services to governments.
Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle cloud fight resurfaces
The Defense Department eventually canceled the JEDI program after a legal fight between Amazon and Microsoft, replacing it with a new cloud initiative shared by several companies, including Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Oracle. Glueck’s lawsuit focuses in part on an October 2024 press briefing at Glover’s home, where he says Pienaar and Glover accused him of lying and inventing documents to damage their reputations following the collapse of IronNet, a cybersecurity company backed by Pienaar.
IronNet went public in 2021 at a $3 billion valuation but filed for bankruptcy two years later. Former executives told the Associated Press the company misled investors, a claim Pienaar has rejected. He said he personally put $60 million into IronNet to keep it afloat. At the 2024 briefing, Glueck alleges, Pienaar made other disputed statements — including claims that Nelson Mandela had been a client, that he had advised King Charles, and that he assisted U.S. authorities in the capture of Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
The lawsuit also points to what Glueck describes as Pienaar’s ties to Russian businessman Viktor Vekselberg. He cites public records and past associates linking Pienaar to Vekselberg’s Renova Group, including his time as a director at United Manganese of Kalahari, a South African mining company partly owned by Renova. Glueck maintains his own work was based on documents, whistleblowers and public sources outlining efforts by Pienaar, Donnelly and Amazon to shape the Pentagon’s cloud procurement process. The court has given Pienaar and Glover 21 days to respond.
From Consulting to Capital Investments
Pienaar, who was born in South Africa and built his career in the UK and U.S., has long positioned himself as a specialist in cybersecurity, space and energy. Through C5 Capital, he has invested in technology companies across Europe, the Middle East and North America. He also highlights his philanthropic work, which he says is focused on global security, veterans, child protection and scientific research.
He began his career at Kroll Inc., becoming one of its youngest managing directors before the firm was sold to Marsh & McLennan. In 2004, he founded G3, a London-based consulting company advising global corporations and law firms on cybersecurity. He sold G3 in 2011 to a European investment group. Today, he serves on boards including BlueVoyant in the U.S., Ionir in Israel, and ITC Secure in the UK. He has also backed media ventures, most notably Vrye Weekblad, a Cape Town investigative newspaper. Past board roles include Omada, Balabit and Shape Security, which C5 Capital has since exited.
