Distributer of encrypted phones bugged by feds handed a prison sentence

SAN DIEGO (CN) — A man who distributed bugged phones to Colombian drug traffickers and money launderers as part of a bizarre international FBI sting operation was sentenced to over five years in prison for racketeering and conspiracy in a San Diego federal courtroom.

“Your honor, I want to say sorry to my family,” said Osemah Elhassen during Friday’s hearing. “I was naive and I lost everything.”

Elhassen is the first of 17 defendants to be sentenced in a RICO case revolving around Anom, a company that advertised its phones and an accompanying messaging app as being encrypted and safe enough for criminals around the world to use to discreetly coordinate a panoply of illegal acts.

But Anom was bugged by the FBI from the start.

Every communication was intercepted, copied and shared with law enforcement. Dubbed Operation Trojan Shield, the FBI — working with law enforcement agencies in the United States and around the world — arrested nearly 800 people in 2021 based on evidence gathered from those communications.

Elhassen, a dual citizen of Australia and Lebanon, was arrested at the behest of the U.S. in Bogota, Colombia, in 2021, where he was living and taking care of his two children at the time.

All 17 defendants indicted in the case are foreign nationals.

Matthew Lombard, Elhassen’s attorney, told U.S. District Judge Janis Sammartino that his client understands the severity of his crime, but he only sold 30 phones and he never had a supervisory role over other people in the Anom organization.

Elhassen had no previous criminal history, but after getting divorced from his Colombian wife and needing to find a way to support his children in the country without being fluent in Spanish, he fell into selling the bugged phones, Lombard said.

Despite his family troubles and his lack of criminal history, U.S. Department of Justice attorney Peter Horn argued that Elhassen was one of the top-ranking agents of Anom in Colombia. Elhassen wasn’t just a distributor, he managed subscriptions to Anom, set prices, managed renewals and worked with drug traffickers like the infamous Medellín Cartel, Horn argued.

But Lombard said his client was taken advantage of. “He’s not that savvy, your honor,” he said.

To deter others from similar crimes, Horn asked Sammartino to sentence Elhassen to 81 months in prison. Lombard balked at the figure.

“Yes, the government has a big interest in deterrence, but you can’t just put someone in a role,” he said.

Sammartino, a George W. Bush appointee, found Horn and the federal government hadn’t met the burden of proof to add an aggravated enhancement to Elhassen’s sentence.

“Who did he manage? Who did he control? Because I haven’t been able to find anything,” Sammartino said, and sentenced Elhassen to 63 months in prison.

After his arrest, Elhassen spent nearly two years in prison in Colombia, where he fell ill and was beaten and extorted by other prisoners, Lombard said.

Sammartino credited Elhassen for the time served in Colombia.

After he was extradited to the U.S., Elhassen pleaded guilty to a felony count of racketeering and conspiracy in May.