United States: a Laval resident accused of international money laundering

A Laval resident caught during an FBI investigation for allegedly embezzling more than $200,000 into Quebec bank accounts that belonged to him now risks up to 20 years in prison in the United States.

Houssam El-Atat appeared before a judge in Buffalo, New York, earlier this month on a charge of international money laundering conspiracy. The 44-year-old Quebecer had just been extradited from Spain, where he had been arrested.

This whole story allegedly began in March 2021 when the email account of a customer at a boating equipment store in Syracuse, the state capital, was compromised.

The man believed he had made two bank transfers totaling the equivalent of nearly 400,000 Canadian dollars to his seller in order to buy a boat. However, these would have been sent to a fraudulent account, which had no connection with this business, we mention in an FBI affidavit.

The American domestic intelligence service was quickly made aware of the fraud and was thus able to collect information from the account which had received the bank transfer. Its owner told investigators that he “was not aware” that the funds “were the result of fraudulent activity,” according to court documents consulted by the Journal.

Towards a Quebec account

The FBI continued to track this amount and noticed that more than $240,000 had been transferred to a bank account at Desjardins.

The institution’s fraud prevention department intervened with its owner, a financial advisor from the greater Montreal area.

He was warned that “if the internal investigation into the transaction concluded that the transfer was fraudulent, Desjardins would be required to inform [l’Autorité des marchés financiers]».

To date, no sanction has been recorded against the financial advisor and the AMF refused to indicate whether an investigation was underway in this matter. No criminal charges have been filed against him.

Scattered money

But the funds would have continued to wander around Quebec: they would have been dispersed to several other accounts, most belonging to shell companies whose president was Houssam El-Atat.

The money was then “distributed to the accused, Houssam El-Atat, withdrawn in cash and sent to other people,” the affidavit states.

According to the FBI, which collaborated with the Sûreté du Québec for this investigation, withdrawals of more than $60,000 were made and a transfer was even sent to a luxury car rental company in Laval.

This case against El-Atat had been opened in the summer of 2023. But it was only a few weeks ago that he appeared for the first time before an American judge.

He now faces up to 20 years in prison and fines totaling more than $675,000.

With Nicolas Brasseur, Investigation Office