| Warrant to Seize
M/T Skipper Sealed 132 Days
After Order 26 in 2026 So Filed
now 3 Unsealed
by
Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book
Substack FEDERAL
COURT,
April 25 รข€“ Following the
seizure of the M/T Skipper
after it left Venezuela on
December 10, 2025, 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 used for
cryptocurrency
scams. But what
about the other 45 cases in
2025? 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
April 15, 2026 was in the DDC
courthouse, clerk's office. In DDC PACER,
there were already 26 sz /
seized cases in 2026 - all 26
of them sealed. And no
response from Judge Faruqui.
So a 4th filing seeking
unsealing was sent, and
followed up on. Now on April 25,
while the first 26 sz filings
of 2026 remain all sealed,
three of six since then have
been partially unsealed. One is for
a Telegram channel associated
with "a compound in the Anlong
Veng district of Oddar
Meanchey Province in
northern Cambodia, near
the Thai border. The compound
is across the street from a
large casino. Also
according to victim reporting,
trafficked persons brought to
work at the compound have
been subject to torture,
abuse, and extortion. The
compound is reportedly run
through a mix of Chinese
criminal actors." That is
26-sz-32 (Matthew J.
Sharbaugh). Another of
the three seizes a domain used
in fraud from a compound in
Burma (or Myanmar); that's
26-sz-27, signed by DDC
Magistrate Judge Matthew
J. Sharbaugh.
The last of the three, for
now, seizes multiple domains
allegedly used for crypto
investment frauds by Ward
Capital and others. That's
26-sz-31, warrant also signed
by Matthew J. Sharbaugh. What about
the other 29 in 2025, and
those in 2025 including the
one promised to be unsealed? Watch this site
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innercitypress.com |
Friday, May 1, 2026
Warrant to Seize M/T Skipper Sealed 132 Days After Order 26 in 2026 So Filed now 3 Unsealed
