by Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book Substack
FEDERAL COURT, Dec 22 – Following the seizure of the M/T Skipper after it left Venezuela on Decmeber 10, on December 12 U.S. District Court for the District of Colombia Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui signed an order unsealing his authorization of the seizure, as 25-sz-50.
But when Inner City Press, covering the cases, sought out the case on PACER on the morning of December 13, it was still listed as "25-sz-50 SEALED v. SEALED; Case is not available to the public."
Figuring from the number that there must be at least 49 earlier seizure order in 2025, Inner City Press checked them one by one. Only four were not sealed: one involving SpaceX, others involving domains uses for cryptocurrency scams. But what about the other 45 cases?
Inner City Press, which often successfully makes such requests in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, and now in the NYS Supreme Criminal Court unsealing exhibits in the Luigi Mangione case, on the morning of December 13 filed with Judge Faruqui, with a copy to the AUSA on one of the four unsealed cases.
But on the morning of December 22, the promised-to-be-unsealed M/T Skipper order was still sealed; now there are 25-sz-51 to 56 orders, all sealed, along with the other 45 orders still sealed.
Inner City Press has written to Judge Faruqui, and the AUSA, a second time:
..."A public explanation, including in light of other current controversies about failures to complete unseal, is needed.
"Like nine days ago, I went back and checked sz cases 25-sz-1 to 25-sz-50 and found that only four (five including M/T Skipper which I assume will soon actually be unsealed) of the fifty are available. All the others are still sealed - nothing has changed.
"There are also 25-sz-51 through 25-sz-56 which are sealed -- it is unclear which of these involves the Bella 1 - so Inner City Press' unsealing request applies to those as well."
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