Sky ECC: How European Police Cracked a Canadian Encrypted Phone Network

Over 10,000 arrests followed after European police secretly intercepted more than one billion messages sent via Sky ECC, a Vancouver-built encrypted platform used by criminals worldwide.

Sky ECC: The Vancouver Encrypted Phone at the Centre of a Global Crime Crackdown

European police secretly intercepted more than one billion private messages sent through Sky ECC, an encrypted communications platform developed by Vancouver-based Sky Global — leading to over 10,000 arrests across Europe, according to a joint investigation by CBC News and Radio-Canada's Enquête.

The messages, harvested from more than 160,000 accounts between 2019 and March 2021, revealed criminal networks operating across multiple continents who believed their communications were entirely secure. What they did not know was that investigators on the other side of the Atlantic had been reading their exchanges in near-real time.

Among the intercepted communications were messages tied to an alleged plot to assassinate two Iranian dissidents living in Maryland. Two Canadian suspects — Damian Ryan, a full-patch member of the Hells Angels, and Adam Pearson — were allegedly recruited for the job by Naji Sharifi Zindashti, a drug trafficker described in a U.S. indictment as being close to the Iranian regime. The two men exchanged explicit instructions via Sky ECC, apparently confident the platform was unbreakable. "Shoot in the head a lot [to] make example," one message read, followed by a description of the intended level of violence.

A Billion Messages, One Operation

Sky ECC was developed by Sky Global, a company headquartered in a downtown Vancouver skyscraper. The platform marketed highly secure mobile phones that stripped out standard functions such as GPS, cameras, and microphones, leaving only encrypted messaging capabilities. The phones became a favoured tool among criminal networks in Europe and beyond.

Catherine De Bolle, executive director of Europol, defended the interception operation while acknowledging its sensitivity. "Privacy is really, really important and we all have the right to our privacy," De Bolle said. "But when we see now that encrypted communication is really an enabler for crime, then we have to do something."

Jean-Philippe Lecouffe, Europol's director of operations, who oversaw the hacking effort, stated plainly: "What is certain is that Sky ECC is a messaging service that has been widely used by criminals."

The operation has since produced more than 10,000 arrests across Europe and triggered trials in Belgium.

CEO Faces Charges in U.S. and France

Jean-François Eap, the 39-year-old founder and CEO of Sky Global, born in Quebec City, faces criminal charges in both the United States and France. Prosecutors in both countries allege he knowingly provided encrypted phones to criminal organizations. A French judicial indictment filed in Paris last August claims that Eap "couldn't have been unaware of the fact that Sky ECC could easily be diverted and thus be used by organized crime," according to Enquête's review of leaked court documents. Eap has not been charged in Canada.

Eap maintains his innocence. His Los Angeles-based lawyer, Ashwin Ram, said his client is "entirely innocent" of all charges. "He's not a drug dealer, he's a tech nerd who created a technology that some bad people used, just like any other product," Ram said.

Eap himself told Enquête that his technology "wasn't designed or intended for criminal use."

Inside the Company

Enquête and CBC News gained access to Sky Global's Vancouver offices, where Eap agreed to be interviewed for the first time since U.S. charges were filed in 2021. The workspace — featuring a foosball table, open-plan desks, and large windows overlooking the city — bears little resemblance to a criminal operation. About a dozen employees were present during the visit.

Eap's parents, Orn Lim and Ty Mey, work alongside him. Refugees who fled Cambodia's Khmer Rouge regime, they immigrated to Canada in 1980. Lim oversees accounting; Mey handles technology development. Together, the family built what became a multimillion-dollar company.

Although Sky Global's encrypted phone business has been shut down, the company still operates a digital gift card platform. Eap also owns and runs 20 Rogers and Fido mobile phone dealerships.

Eap says he began his career selling mobile phones for a small Rogers dealership chain in the Vancouver area after dropping out of a university computer science program. He claims he bought the business in 2008, at age 23, and in 2011 began developing an encrypted messaging system with his father.

Former Investigator Skeptical

Calvin Chrustie, a former RCMP superintendent in Vancouver with extensive experience in transnational crime investigations, expressed skepticism about Eap's claims of ignorance. "I just can't get my head wrapped around that all the criminals knew about it and I would just have to think that the CEO of a company that's selling it would have the smarts and the intellect to be able to know what was really happening," Chrustie told Enquête.

Distributors and the Criminal Underworld

The joint investigation — a year-long project involving Enquête and journalists from roughly a dozen European media organizations — also examined how Sky ECC reached criminal networks in the first place. Reporters reviewed close to 3,800 documents from the French judicial inquiry, as well as court filings, corporate records, and other public documents. Their findings indicate that some of Sky Global's top distributors maintained close ties to organized crime.

The documentary component aired as Cracked: Crimes Behind Encryption on CBC's The Fifth Estate.

American and French prosecutors continue to pursue the case against Eap. His lawyer, Ram, framed the prosecution as a misapplication of criminal law to a technology product. "How does a tech nerd who doesn't even drink or smoke be indicted as a drug trafficker?" Ram said.

Source: CBC News