Theft of Desjardins customer data: Quebec wants to seize the luxury condos of a fraud accused

Quebec wants to seize luxury condos worth nearly $3 million from one of the fraud suspects at the expense of victims of Desjardins identity theft, which he had purchased shortly before being accused of last year.

With two other accomplices, Nassim Alikacem is suspected of having embezzled a total of $9 million based on information allegedly provided by a mole within the financial institution.

Last June, Laval police announced that he was accused along with Ayoub Kourdal and Imad Jbara. If the police were able to get their hands on the first two, Alikacem is still the subject of an arrest warrant.

Identity theft

A little before Christmas, the Attorney General of Quebec went to court to obtain the confiscation of his condos located in the Roccabella project in downtown Montreal. The state considers the money used to pay down payments to come from criminal activity.

The first condo was acquired last March for the tidy sum of $1.86 million through the Nassim Alikacem family trust.

Two months later, the alleged fraudster got his hands on two condos located one above the other for the sum of $547,858 each.

According to documents filed in court, Nassim Alikacem had access to Desjardins customer data which he allegedly used for fraudulent transactions. In particular, he allegedly usurped the identity of his victims by contacting the customer service of Desjardins, the Laurentian Bank, or even telecommunications companies.

Once in possession of the telephone number or email address of his victims, he could thwart Desjardins security processes and gain access to bank accounts.

Luxury watches

According to affidavits linked to the Glaive police investigation, the 31-year-old young man is the main suspect in the embezzlement of $4.5 million at the expense of a Laval notary.

Part of the money was allegedly sent to accounts abroad and an amount of US$143,000 was transferred to a jewelry store located in the United States.

During searches carried out by the police, a watch worth $50,000 was found in a condo where Alikacem lived in St-Augustin-de-Desmaures.

The investigation also established that the latter had been contacted on his cell phone by Jean-Loup Masse-Leullier.

This private lender is suspected of having purchased customer lists from a former Desjardins employee, Sébastien Boulanger-Dorval. Part of this information was subsequently sold to the Alikacem group.

The accused is not his first run-in with the law. In 2021, he pleaded guilty to charges of fraud and possession of stolen or counterfeit credit cards. He had received a conditional discharge.

Alikacem’s main creditor, MCF Capital, also took steps to force him to abandon his condo. As of early November, he still owed $2.45 million on his mortgage. According to notarized documents, he did not pay his monthly payments of $16,000 as agreed.

– With the collaboration of Camille Payant