The US issued arrest warrants on the 12th March 2021, for Jean-François Eap, Sky Global’s Canadian Chief Executive Officer, and Thomas Herman, former phone distributer. The two executives have been indicted for racketeering and knowingly facilitating the import and distribution of illegal drugs, while running the largest encrypted phone service.
The warrants came after Belgian and Dutch police finished a series of raids on suspected drug traffickers after a joint operation with French law enforcement. The company Sky Global, based in Vancouver, supplied encrypted phones to 70,000 users worldwide. They installed encryption software on iPhone, Google Pixel, Blackberry and Nokia handsets. This way they routed encrypted text messages through servers in France and Canada. Phantom Secure’s chief executive, Vincent Ramos has already pleaded guilty and admitted that himself and other aided the illegal distribution of drugs around the world.
