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A Richmond man who pleaded guilty in the U.S. to aiding the Sinaloa cartel and other international organized crime groups hid his illicit cash in bank accounts of shell companies he registered with the B.C. government.

Vincent Ramos had at least 10 other companies set up on top of Phantom Secure, the B.C.-registered entity he used to sell encrypted devices to criminal organizations around the world for a decade.

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The U.S. government says he laundered $80 million earned enabling high-level criminals to hide drug deals and murder plots through Blackberries he promised could be instantly wiped clean to evade police.

Six of Ramos’s companies were set up through the B.C. Finance Ministry’s corporate registry between 2005 and 2017, according to a Vancouver Sun investigation.

In some of the cases, Ramos hired a law firm and then listed his corporation’s address as his lawyer’s office.

With at least two of his companies, his longtime accountant Ash Katey was the registering party, according to documents obtained by Postmedia.