Case against the smartphone tech company’s CEO 'ongoing' but appears dormant, and none of the allegations have been tested in court
Three years ago on March 12, a grand jury in San Diego indicted two men behind a Vancouver encrypted smartphone company on charges of racketeering conspiracy and conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.
The court file in San Diego appears dormant since prosecutors applied in September 2021 for forfeiture of Eap and Sky Global’s accounts with TD Bank, a California-licensed 2019 McLaren 570S Spider and a list of domain names.“We are not in a position to do interviews on this ongoing case,” said Kelly Thornton, director of media relations for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of California.
“Later, it became clear that probably the actual goal, and most certainly the result, of the operation was not to prosecute the individuals behind Sky ECC itself,” wrote Jan-Jaap Oerlemans and Sofie Royer, “but to obtain insight in the criminal activities carried out in Belgium and beyond and to prosecute individuals operating from Belgium and neighbouring countries.”
The allegations have not been proven in court, and there was no suggestion of wrongdoing on the part of Eap or Herdman. But Eap’s lawyer in California, former federal prosecutor Ashwin Ram, said in November that Eap never did business with Ramos and never communicated with Ortis. The alleged links have not been proven.
Ram claimed that Sky ECC had 120,000 users by March 2021. At its peak, Sky Global and related companies employed 70 people. The shutdown caused the layoff of 27 staff member and 14 contractors. Eap sued the next month and included an appraisal for his West Vancouver residence, pegging its value at $15.5 million. He swore an affidavit that he had always been a good customer since opening the account in 2017. But, on April 1, 2021, he was suddenly unable to access $125,000 in his account or use his credit card.
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