U.S. Govt Indicted Me Because I Make Privacy Tools, Says Crypto-Chat App CEO
The CEO of Sky Global – which sold encryption chat software with customized smartphones – has come out fighting after Uncle Sam charged him with knowingly assisting the international drug smuggling trade.
“The indictment against me personally in the United States is an example of the police and the government trying to vilify anyone who takes a stance against unwarranted surveillance,” Jean-François Eap, of Canadian-based Sky Global, said in a statement following the indictment announced on Friday.
“It seems that it is simply not enough that you have not done anything illegal,” Eap continued. “There is no question that I have been targeted, as Sky Global has been targeted, only because we build tools to protect the fundamental right to privacy. The unfounded allegations of involvement in criminal activity by me and our company are entirely false.”
Those allegations are serious: one count of racketeering conspiracy, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison; and a second count of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances – including heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine – which also comes with a life-in-prison maximum sentence. The Sky Global website has also been seized.
The US government claimed Eap and a former distributor of the company’s devices, Thomas Herdman, “knowingly and intentionally participated in a criminal enterprise that facilitated the transnational importation and distribution of narcotics through the sale and service of encrypted communications devices.” (Read more from “U.S. Govt Indicted Me Because I Make Privacy Tools, Says Crypto-Chat App CEO” HERE)
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