Karaoke-loving, tech wiz allegedly behind encrypted criminal app

A humble cleaning salesman by day, an alleged tech mastermind by night, now an inmate on remand in a NSW jail - welcome to the life of Jay Je Yoon Jung.

A humble cleaning salesman by day, an alleged tech mastermind by night, now an inmate on remand in a NSW jail - welcome to the life of Jay Je Yoon Jung.

Police allege the unassuming 32-year-old is the key cog in the large wheel that is Ghost, an encrypted communication platform loaded onto select mobile phones and allegedly sold to bikies, crime lords, enforcers and guns-for-hire, who believed they could speak freely about kidnappings, drug imports and even murders, without fear of police interception.

Police allege Jung was the man responsible for building the encrypted platform, which has been operating for nine years but was only recently infiltrated by police.

Jung, who lives with his parents in Narwee, south of Sydney, was the central target in a series of sweeping dawn raids carried out by Australian Federal Police officers across the country on Tuesday, resulting in the arrest of 38 people, including 23 in NSW.

More than 200kg of drugs were seized, along with $1.2 million in cash and 25 weapons.

The Sydney man who allegedly controlled the underworld’s unhackable communications platform remains a mystery on the general web.

The Narwee home of Jay Je Yoon Jung, an unassuming 32-year-old karaoke-loving technical dynamo who lives at home with his parents. Picture: Justin Lloyd

His LinkedIn account says he’s self employed but he’s believed to work at his parents’ business.

His parents own a commercial cleaning business called 7Masters, which described itself as one of the best professional cleaning services around with more than 25 years experience.

A family friend, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the charges against Jung “came as a complete surprise”.

“Jay is a nice, but very quiet man,” the source said. “He has worked with his family for many years.

“The family have told employees and friends they needed to ‘take time away from the business’, but didn’t explain why.

“Jay was a manager of one of the departments at 7Master.”

The man told The Daily Telegraph the family “would have been caught off guard” by these charges.

Police confirmed Jung worked for the family business, and his Linkedin profile says he was in the sales team for the past 12-and-a-half years.

He works by day at their legitimate family business - his parents oblivious to his alleged dealings with organised crime.

Jung’s parents have not been charged and are not accused of any wrongdoing.

Court documents reveal police will allege Jung spent his spare time “providing material support [and] resources” to criminal organisations, thereby allegedly aiding them in committing serious offences that carry more than three years jail.

He also stands accused of using fictitious aliases to obtain a Bit.Store cryptocurrency card and a Meta Genesis cryptocurrency card to deal with alleged proceeds of crime.

Jung’s lawyer, Jason Pham, did not enter pleas to any of the charges during the brief mention.

Jung will remain in custody on remand until at least his next court appearance in November.

Investigations have revealed the mastermind doesn’t appear as a showy spender, the only obvious sign of any wealth is a 2015 black Mercedes Benz with the number plate “Ghost”, sources say.

With no known tech qualifications it’s unclear as to how this man could have created a platform nine years ago that police will allege has been used to facilitate all levels of organised crime, including violence, drug trafficking and money laundering.

So confident in the platform’s security, users have shared pictures of drugs and even asked the alleged mastermind - who is also the “tech troubleshooter” - to fix the clarity of their drug pictures.

The man who allegedly created the app lives with his parents in Sydney.

Sources say the site is also full of open conversations about drug dealing, threats of violence, even pictures of people with weapons.

The common theme is drug supply, and the violence that comes with it.

There is no evidence, police will allege, that the mastermind is motivated by anything other than financial gain, saying he derived “considerable illicit profits” from the platform, hiding his wealth in cryptocurrency wallets.

Ghost required users to purchase a phone and a SIMcard for $2350 which included a six month subscription.

Users can send text messages, voice messages, photos and videos to other platform users.

An added appeal is the self-expiring message function and the ability to “wipe” itself if not activated within 30 days.

There is also a push-to-talk feature with voice altercation and users can use handles or pseudonyms.

While the privacy functions are what likely drew users to the site, the AFP will allege the mastermind had tight control over who is accepted and who is not.

Referral is largely word of mouth, and the alleged mastermind has the final say over who is welcomed onto the platform.

The structure is simple, the administrator, the resellers and the users.

The administrator, or mastermind allegedly determines who can become a reseller - the primary distributors of devices.

They have access to a portal, created by the alleged administrator, that enables them to create an account for their clients.

The resellers conduct sales, set up devices, receive cash or cryptocurrency payment and provide details to clients.

How he came to be the first Australian charged by the AFP with offences associated with operating and running a platform in Australia, that has users around the world, remains unclear.