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SINGAPORE: Approximately $ 4 million of illicit funds linked to a Canadian group that sold encrypted devices to drug traffickers in various countries were seized in Singapore, the United States Department of Justice said on Monday (December 14).
The funds were seized from four bank accounts by the Singapore Police Department of Business Affairs and US authorities. Those funds, totaling $ 3,971,468.40, have already been repatriated to the United States, the Justice Department said in a press release.
The money was generated by Canada-based Phantom Secure, an encrypted telecommunications network used by transnational organized criminal syndicates.
According to court documents, Phantom Secure advertised its products as immune to decryption, wiretapping, or third party legal record requests. It also guaranteed that the evidence inside a device could be destroyed if it was ever compromised.
AUSTRALIA, THAILAND, USA AMONG COUNTRIES WHERE DRUGS WERE DISTRIBUTED
The firm’s executive director, Vincent Ramos, and four of his associates were indicted by a federal grand jury in March 2018 on charges that they operated a criminal enterprise that “facilitated the transnational importation and distribution of narcotics through the sale and service of encrypted telecommunications devices and services “. the justice department said.
In October 2018, Ramos pleaded guilty that he and his co-conspirators facilitated the distribution of cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine to locations around the world. This included countries such as Australia, Canada, Mexico, Thailand, the US, and the European region.
They also admitted to providing drug traffickers with encrypted Phantom Secure communications devices designed to thwart law enforcement, the justice department said.
To keep communications out of the reach of authorities, they maintained Phantom Secure servers in Panama and Hong Kong. They also used virtual proxy servers to disguise the physical location of their servers and remotely removed or “erased” devices seized by law enforcement, the justice department said.
“Ramos’s clients used his products to devastating and sometimes deadly effects, and Ramos used this to market his encryption services to criminals around the world,” the department said in the statement.
The department cited news reports of a gang murder investigation that was hampered because the suspects used Phantom Secure devices to coordinate the murder.
According to court documents, Ramos wrote in response to the murder at the time that “this is the best verification of what we have been saying all the time, proven and effective for now for nine years. It is the highest level of authority that confirms our effectiveness. It can’t get any better than that. ”
As part of his guilty plea, Ramos agreed to a $ 80 million money forfeiture judgment, as well as the forfeiture of tens of millions of dollars in identified assets. This ranged from bank accounts around the world to houses, a Lamborghini, cryptocurrency accounts, and gold coins.
The money repatriated from Singapore was among the assets identified by investigators as seized, the justice department said.
Ramos was later sentenced to 108 months in prison.
“The Department of Justice specifically commends the efforts of our Singaporean counterparts to identify, freeze and repatriate the proceeds of this criminal enterprise,” it said in the statement.
“Investigators from the Department of Business Affairs and representatives from the Attorney General’s House worked tirelessly to ensure that this proceeds are not used to further illegal activities,” the department said.
US Attorney Robert Brewer said “tremendous determination … dismantled this criminal network.”
“As a result of this groundbreaking prosecution, the network has been shut down, its founder has been brought to justice, and his money is being identified and confiscated to help crime victims and witnesses,” he added.
