Digital Forensics Dispatch

Suspect Enlists the Help of a Google Tech to Remotely Wipe A Phone From Lockup?

January 25, 2022

According to a recent article by Thomas Brewster on Forbes.com, the Department of Justice has disclosed what would seem to be a pretty big blunder on the FBI’s part during a child grooming sting operation.

As part of the operation, investigators identified Anmol Chungh after the man started chatting and sending sexually explicit photos to an undercover officer posing as a 15 year old girl on a dating site. A meeting was proposed and 28-year-old Chungh was arrested at the meeting location with “a bagful of sex toys.”

The officers seized Chungh’s phone, a Samsung S9, and he was taken to the Kankakee jail in central Illinois. While in jail, he made two calls one to his wife and another to an unknown contact. In Punjabi he is alleged to have instructed the second person to “…reset everything. They have my phone. I think they will get permission by Tuesday or Wednesday to open the phone; they do not have it yet.”

When the government did get permission to access the phone no information regarding the matter could be obtained. The phone was apparently remotely factory reset. While this may seem like a case of a suspect simply outsmarting, the police the outcome was certainly not inevitable. There are a number of ways law enforcement could have isolated the phone from the network to keep the reset from occurring. It seems clear best practices were not followed in the collection of this device and it may have cost the FBI dearly in this case.

Chungh is still being charged with attempting to sexually exploit and coerce a minor. On top of those charges, the government is also filing a claim regarding the alleged destruction of evidence.  

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