FBI stored Anom phone data on server in Lithuania

VILNIUS - Data from encrypted Anom phones used by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to monitor criminals worldwide was stored on a server in Siauliai, northern Lithuania, the 15min news website reported on Tuesday.

According to the report, a Lithuanian court in 2019 authorized secret copies of the server's data, even though it may have had only partial information about the operation, as officials suggested that the US request for legal assistance should not disclose that the server was operated by the FBI.

The Anom encrypted messaging network, with about 12,000 phones that law enforcement distributed to criminal syndicates to intercept and monitor their communications, was part of the large-scale international operation Trojan Shield.

In 2021, the operation led to roughly 700 searches worldwide and more than 800 arrests, most of them members or associates of major drug trafficking networks.

Citing a ruling by the Vilnius District Court, 15min said Anom communication data from the Siauliai server was copied two to three times a week and transferred to the FBI under the US legal assistance request. The FBI then shared the information with partners in other countries.

Finnish and German media outlets, which analyzed leaked emails, reported that the US first approached Lithuania for legal assistance in the fall of 2019.

On October 3 that year, a Vilnius Regional Court judge signed an order allowing the Lithuanian Criminal Police Bureau's officers to regularly access premises in Siauliai, secretly copy the server's data and forward it to the FBI.

According to 15min, the order described the server as being used by international criminal groups but did not mention that it was controlled by law enforcement and fed by an FBI-initiated encrypted platform.

Leaked correspondence suggests that the FBI may have initially submitted a more detailed request noting that Anom was set up by the bureau and that it controlled the server, but this information was omitted from the final request for legal assistance at the suggestion of Lithuanian officials.

The FBI stressed that Trojan Shield was carried out lawfully. The Lithuanian Prosecutor General's Office told 15min it could not comment further on the country's role, citing confidentiality commitments to its partners in the operation.