Police officers from the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) arrested Sébastien Boulanger-Dorval and three other people on Thursday in connection with the massive theft of data from Desjardins, revealed in 2019. Four other suspects are still being sought.
The Sûreté du Québec revealed several pieces of information on Thursday morning related to its Portier investigation launched in 2019 following this leak which affected nearly 10 million members.
According to Benoit Richard, lieutenant coordinator at the SQ, Sébastien Boulanger-Dorval was arrested in the last hours and must appear during the day before a judge at the Quebec courthouse.
His arrest followed an investigation complex
police which has lasted for 5 years, including 25 searches and the seizure of 120 computer items. Nearly 160 witnesses were also met.
Boulanger-Dorval will face five charges, including that of having, between 1er October 2016 and May 27, 2019, used, directly or indirectly, a computer without having obtained authorization. The 42-year-old man will also face charges related to the theft and sale of personal data with the aim of committing fraud.
Five other people will also be charged with the same offenses, except for the unauthorized use of a computer.
Jean-Loup Masse-Leullier, 32 years old from Lévis, Laurence Bernier, 29 years old from Montreal, and François Baillargeon-Bouchard, 35 years old from Quebec were arrested by the police and must also appear Thursday.
Mathieu Joncas, 38 years old from Lac-Beauport, and Charles Bernier, 31 years old from Beaumont, are still the subject of an arrest warrant.
Two men still on the run
Canada-wide arrest warrants were also issued against Maxime Paquette, 38, and Juan Pablo Ceranno, 38.
The latter two are currently on the run abroad and are now among the most wanted criminals in Quebec
warns Benoit Richard, specifying that they are outside the country.
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Juan Pablo Serrano and Maxime Paquette are the subject of a Canada-wide arrest warrant for fraud at Desjardins.
Photo: Sûreté du Québec
According to the SQ, the delay in carrying out arrests is explained by the large number of legal requests made by the police. We had to ensure that the evidence collected was complete before making the arrests in order to respect the standards for judicial delays.
assures Benoit Richard.
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Benoit Richard, lieutenant coordinator in the communications department for the SQ.
Photo: Radio-Canada
Waves of arrests
The arrest comes a few hours after those carried out by the Laval Police Department following the Glaive project investigation.
Sébastien Boulanger-Dorval is considered the main suspect in the theft of data concerning more than 9 million customers and former customers of the financial institution. This was unveiled by Desjardins in 2019.
Documents made public by the court and linked to an internal Desjardins investigation show that Sébastien Boulanger-Dorval admitted, during a meeting on May 26, 2019 in Lévis with the Desjardins Investigations and Technologies Department, that he was selling “confidential information and databases relating to Desjardins clients […] for fifteen (15) months at a rate of approximately one sale every two or three months.
The ex-employee, who held a position as senior advisor within a marketing team for many years, allegedly justified his actions by financial problems arising from a former relationship and admitted to having sold part of these lists to a relationship from those around him.
The man did not face any charges.
Desjardins and Quebec salute the work of the police
By email, Desjardins said he was satisfied with the latest police developments.
We salute the work of the Sûreté du Québec and we are very satisfied that arrests have been made. We would like to assure the authorities of our full cooperation in the continuation of the procedures.
explains Jean-Benoit Turcotti, spokesperson for the Federation.
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The theft of personal data suffered by Desjardins is the worst crisis that Guy Cormier has had to go through since his arrival as president of the Desjardins Movement.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Ivanoh Demers
The police work follows the report unveiled by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada in December 2020. The latter concluded that between March 2017 and May 2019, the malicious employee copied this personal information located on the shared drive, including those to which he did not normally have access rights in the bank data warehouse, to his computer then to USB sticks. This was in contravention of the confidentiality undertaking signed as part of his employment.
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Gardensand the fraud that followed”,”text”:”I congratulate the SQ and SPL teams, as well as the other police forces involved, for the arrests in the case of personal data leaks at Desjardins and frauds that followed”}}”>I congratulate the SQ and SPL teams, as well as the other police forces involved, for the arrests in the case of personal data leaks at Desjardins and the fraud that followed.
also reacted François Bonnardel, Minister of Public Security of Quebec.
With the collaboration of Pascal Robidas
