| DDC Sealing
Games in Shadow SZ Docket
Inner City Press Raised to
Chief and Mag Judge
by
Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book
Substack FEDERAL
COURT,
June 2 – 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? Inner City Press
wrote to Magistrate Judge
Faruqui, and to Chief Judge
James Boasberg, and another
DDC District Judge who
docketed that letter and said,
I don't accept letters. Judge
Faruqui said to contact Chief
Judge Boasberg's Special
Assistant Lisa Klem. Inner
City Press wrote to her twice
- nothing - then called. Yes,
she had received the letter.
She said she would revert -
and has not. Now Inner City
Press has found that the DDC
has put up a public
webpage listing unsealed
seizure matters at
dcd.uscourts.gov — but with a
glaring asymmetry. The page
shows exactly what the Court
has chosen to unseal: the MIT
Skipper tanker, Starlink
terminals, seized domain
names, cryptocurrency
accounts. What it does not
show — what it seemingly
deliberately omits — is any
corresponding list of what
remains sealed. The public can
see the cases the Court
decided to reveal. It cannot
see, let alone challenge, the
cases it decided to keep
hidden. There is no published
criteria, no process, no
mechanism to request unsealing
of any specific matter. It is,
in effect, a transparency page
that makes the opacity worse
by making it look like
something is being done. Inner City
Press is, first here, asking
DDC to publish a parallel list
of all still-sealed "sz"
docket numbers, require the
government to justify each one
under the Hubbard factors,
and immediately unseal any
matter where a parallel public
civil forfeiture complaint
already names the same vessel
or property. Inner City Press
will not rest on this. Watch this site
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innercitypress.com |
Friday, June 5, 2026
DDC Sealing Games in Shadow SZ Docket Inner City Press Raised to Chief and Mag Judge
