The Canadian company "Sky", whose application they used for secret communication criminal groups around the world, she hired Serbian criminals to sell "sky" applications and telephones in the Balkans, reveals KRIK as part of the international project The Crime Messenger.
Mobile phone seller from Čačak Saša Vasilijević realized at the beginning of 2021 that it was time to move his family to a safe place, it says SCREAM.
"All those rascals who killed my friends, cut off their heads (...) I'm furious with those garbage men because I haven't been with my family for more than 90 days, and every month I have to allocate 50 (thousand) for security and safe houses for my family" , complained at the beginning of March to his boss in the company that distributed phones for "Sky Global", reports this investigative media.
Vasilijević did not sell ordinary phones for this company, but special ones - with the "Sky" application installed, as stated, which made it possible to communicate safely through it, that is, that the police could not intercept messages and spy on correspondence. As such, it was a favorite tool of criminal groups, primarily in Europe, and they used it extensively to contract various criminal deals and organize murders.
A job that can cost heads
This sensitive business of selling "Sky" phones could literally cost the sellers their heads, according to the text. That's how Vasilijević, who, according to competitors, supplied phones to the Montenegrin Škaljar clan, found himself under attack from a rival criminal group, it says.
He is just one of the many sellers of "Sky" phones in the Balkans that KRIK journalists identified as part of the international project "The Crime Messenger" in cooperation with the OCCRP journalist network and other well-known world media, such as Paper Trail Media from Germany, StudioFact from France, CBC/Radio Canada from Canada, NRC from the Netherlands, Le Soir from Belgium, Investigace from the Czech Republic. The project was created, it was stated, on the basis of almost four thousand documents obtained by journalists from the investigation conducted in France against the founder and director of the company "Sky Global", as well as the people who sold encrypted phones for this company.
Research reveals that the company "Sky" relied on the help of members of Balkan criminal groups so that their phones and software could reach customers from the underground, KRIK writes. "Sky" first engaged larger companies as official distributors, and then they introduced members of the Balkan mafia into the business who sold phones to end users, the text states.
The top of the company knew that the phones were used by criminals
According to the article, various evidence obtained by journalists during a months-long investigation show that people from the very top of the company knew that their phones were being used by criminals, as well as that the people they hired in the sales chain were also members of the underworld.
Salespeople were key points in the distribution network of Sky phones: apart from finding local customers, they were also responsible for technical support. If a problem arose that they could not solve, they would help their clients to connect with the company "Sky". In the event that their clients were arrested or needed to cover up incriminating evidence, the resellers could delete the data from the phone by sending a request to "Sky Global", writes this media.
According to KRIK, Vasilijević's correspondence on "sky" indicates that, apart from selling phones, he was also involved in criminal activities - he exchanged messages in which drugs and weapons were mentioned. On the other hand, the phone seller for the rival group led by Veljko Belivuk was Srđan Lalić, who kidnapped, tortured and killed members of the opposing groups in a house near Belgrade specially equipped for murders and called the "slaughterhouse".
"'Sky' was aware that its system was being used by criminal organizations (...) they advised us not to leave any trace and not to say that 'Sky' is being used for criminal purposes," Lalić testified later to the French investigative judge. KRIK exclusively publishes his testimony.
Additional income for criminals
Apart from the two of them, KRIK journalists also identified Miodrag Kostić as the "sky" dealer - the son of the former president of the Niš Municipality, Crveni Krst, but also a violent criminal who, at the time he was selling phones with his wife, was on the run because of a bank robbery.
The sale of phones represented a significant additional income for criminals - in some cases they earned millions. Ante Vrcan, another suspected member of the Balkan mafia who sold "Sky" phones in the Balkans and in South American countries, spoke about this when he was interrogated by French investigative judges.
"(My commission was) about 30.000 dollars a month, and when there were promotions it was 100.000 dollars a month, and the promotions were twice a year," said Vrcan, who was accused in Croatia of smuggling cocaine and weapons, writes KRIK. According to the police investigation, Vrcan was a member of the Croatian branch of the Darko Šarić clan.
Seized servers
At the beginning of 2021, the French police seized the servers of the company "Sky" that were located in this country, and since then messages have been deciphered in stages, which led to the arrest of many criminals throughout Europe.
In August, an indictment was brought in France against 31 people from the company "Sky", their distributors and phone sellers. The owner of the company, Canadian citizen Jean-Francois Eap, has also been charged, and parallel proceedings are being conducted against him in America. However, he is in Canada, which does not want to extradite him.
The company "Sky", in a response sent to journalists, claims that it controlled phone sellers and that there were strict rules on the prohibition of using "Sky" for criminal activities. Whenever "Sky" discovered that users of the application did not comply with these principles, their accounts were deleted, they claim.
You can read the full text on the website KRIK.
