The company Phantom Secure supplied criminal organizations with resistant to hacking smartphones.
In the United States, a court sentenced a Canadian entrepreneur, who sells secure smartphones to criminal gangs, to nine years in prison.
41-year-old Vincent Ramos (Vincent Ramos) is the head of Phantom Secure, which has sold customized BlackBerry smartphones with PGP encryption for over ten years. According to US law enforcement agencies, the company deliberately supplied criminal organizations in the United States, Mexico and Australia with resistant smartphones for hacking. These devices allowed criminals to communicate without worrying about eavesdropping, and also to remotely erase all data in the event that a smartphone was seized by law enforcement officers.
The investigation into Ramos and his company began in 2017, when former football player Owen Hanson was detained while trying to transport more than a ton of cocaine from Mexico to the United States. During the undercover operation, law enforcement officers documented how Ramos advertised his product to potential buyers, claiming that his smartphones could hide illegal activities. In other words, he himself openly confirmed that he purposefully sells secure devices to criminals.
Ramos was arrested in Washington in March 2018 and admitted his guilt in October of the same year. After his arrest, law enforcement officers cut off the network of Phantom Secure, which consisted of servers around the world, including in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Panama, Thailand and the United States. According to investigators, at the time of the arrest of Ramos, at least 7 thousand devices were in active use, and for all of its existence, the company has sold about 20 thousand smartphones, half of them - in Australia.
As part of the execution of the conviction, Ramos confiscated $ 80 million in profits from illegal activities, as well as cryptocurrency accounts, gold coins and real estate.
In the United States, a court sentenced a Canadian entrepreneur, who sells secure smartphones to criminal gangs, to nine years in prison.
41-year-old Vincent Ramos (Vincent Ramos) is the head of Phantom Secure, which has sold customized BlackBerry smartphones with PGP encryption for over ten years. According to US law enforcement agencies, the company deliberately supplied criminal organizations in the United States, Mexico and Australia with resistant smartphones for hacking. These devices allowed criminals to communicate without worrying about eavesdropping, and also to remotely erase all data in the event that a smartphone was seized by law enforcement officers.
The investigation into Ramos and his company began in 2017, when former football player Owen Hanson was detained while trying to transport more than a ton of cocaine from Mexico to the United States. During the undercover operation, law enforcement officers documented how Ramos advertised his product to potential buyers, claiming that his smartphones could hide illegal activities. In other words, he himself openly confirmed that he purposefully sells secure devices to criminals.
Ramos was arrested in Washington in March 2018 and admitted his guilt in October of the same year. After his arrest, law enforcement officers cut off the network of Phantom Secure, which consisted of servers around the world, including in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Panama, Thailand and the United States. According to investigators, at the time of the arrest of Ramos, at least 7 thousand devices were in active use, and for all of its existence, the company has sold about 20 thousand smartphones, half of them - in Australia.
As part of the execution of the conviction, Ramos confiscated $ 80 million in profits from illegal activities, as well as cryptocurrency accounts, gold coins and real estate.