Chief Executive of Communications Company Sentenced to Prison for Providing Encryption Services and

[nitpicker]

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdca/pr/chief-executive-communications-company-sentenced-prison-providing-encryption-services

Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
Southern District of California

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, May 28, 2019

Chief Executive of Communications Company Sentenced to Prison for Providing Encryption Services and Devices to Criminal Organizations

SAN DIEGO – Vincent Ramos, the chief executive of Canada-based Phantom Secure, was sentenced to nine years in prison today for leading a criminal enterprise that facilitated the transnational importation and distribution of narcotics through the sale of encrypted communication devices and services. The Court also ordered Ramos to forfeit $80 million as proceeds of the crime, as well as specifically identified assets, including international bank accounts, real estate, cryptocurrency accounts, and gold coins.

This conviction marks the first time the United States targeted a company and convicted its chief executive for knowingly providing transnational criminal organizations with the encrypted infrastructure to conduct the international importation and distribution of narcotics.
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Ramos advertised Phantom Secure’s products as impervious to decryption, wiretapping or legal third-party records requests. Phantom Secure routinely deleted and destroyed evidence from devices that it knew had been seized by law enforcement. According to Court documents, Phantom Secure’s clients used email handles like the following to conduct criminal activities: [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail].

According to court documents, one of Ramos’s customers, Owen Hanson (who was previously sentenced to 21 years in custody), used only six Phantom Secure devices to coordinate the transportation of more than a ton of cocaine from Mexico into the United States and on to Canada and Australia. The government conservatively estimates there were at least 7,000 Phantom Secure devices in use at the time Ramos was arrested--meaning that “the amount of drugs Phantom Secure aided and abetted in transporting by providing devices and services to criminals worldwide was too high calculate.”

Ramos’ customers used his products to devastating and sometimes deadly effect, and Ramos used this to market his encryption services to criminals across the world. According to court documents, in response to a March 5, 2014 news article that reported investigations of a gangland murder were stymied because the suspects used Phantom Secure devices to coordinate the killing, Ramos wrote, “this is the best verification on what we have been saying all along – proven and effective for now over nine years. It is the highest level of authority confirming our effectiveness. It can’t get better than that.”
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