Pinchas Buchris is a former commander of Unit 8200, the Israeli military's signals intelligence and cyberwarfare directorate, which is part of the IDF's Directorate of Military Intelligence. He also served as director general of Israel's Defense Ministry during Ehud Barak's tenure as Defense Minister. Buchris was appointed to the board of directors of Carbyne (formerly Reporty Homeland Security), the emergency dispatch technology startup that Epstein funded through Ehud Barak.
Carbyne processes 911-equivalent emergency calls and developed real-time location tracking and live video streaming of callers to emergency services, raising significant civil liberties concerns given its leadership's background in mass surveillance infrastructure. Buchris told Haaretz that Barak's investment in Carbyne was deliberately structured to conceal Epstein's role as the primary financial backer: "Barak brought the money and as far as I'm concerned it's his." This statement acknowledges the arrangement under which Barak served as the visible investor while Epstein supplied the capital, allowing Epstein's name to be kept off the company's public filings and investor materials. The Carbyne board also included former Prime Minister Ehud Barak as chairman and Amir Elichai, a Unit 8200 alumnus, as CEO.
Buchris's appointment placed former Israeli intelligence leadership directly atop a company processing American emergency communications infrastructure. The arrangement was reported by Mint Press News in 2019 and subsequently cited in coverage of the DOJ's 2026 document releases regarding Barak and Epstein's joint ventures.