Alerted by Desjardins ‘internal investigation into the massive theft of its customers’ personal data, the main suspect was able to destroy compromising information on one of its devices, reveal freshly banned court documents.
Sébastien Boulanger-Dorval “erased files contained in his laptop” after being made aware of the fact that the investigators of the Mouvement intended to recover it, in May 2019. This is what reveals a denunciation written some weeks later, to obtain a search warrant as part of the Laval police Glaive project on data theft.
Detective Patrick French had yet formally asked Desjardins not to attempt anything against Sébastien Boulanger-Dorval without his authorization, the document mentions. When the police learned that the Movement was planning to recover his computer, he tried to prevent the operation in order to protect the evidence.
Patrick French “repeats on several occasions that no action with regard to this employee should be taken without the express agreement of a representative of the Laval Police Department, in order not to harm the investigation by course ”, according to the denunciation.
Never mind: Desjardins still decided to search his office, as the media have already reported. Sébastien Boulanger-Dorval was “made aware” of the operation. He was then able to remove information, reveals the denunciation.
Joined by Press, the Mouvement assures that since the beginning of this affair, “the protection of the interests of the members and clients remains the priority of Desjardins”.
“It was important for us to put an end as quickly as possible to this scheme which could have affected even more members and to ensure that malicious people stop their actions”, writes spokesperson Chantal Corbeil in an email.
She assures us that Desjardins “works with the police forces and will continue to do so as long as necessary in order to shed light on this situation”.
Luxury cars fraudulently leased
The denunciations also make it possible to understand the importance of the criminal network which would have used the data stolen from Desjardins to fraudulently rent luxury cars, as of the summer of 2018, in particular at Location Holand, in Mount-Royal.
The police took an interest in several suspects, including an individual with a hidden identity who “has a heavy criminal record”, as well as another man also involved in a domestic violence case, arrested with “a 9mm handgun. “.
The suspects would have used various means to commit their frauds: false credit cards, false checks, fraudulent registration, false driving license …
Laval police mention a search that allowed them to get their hands on an electronic payment terminal, transaction records and a bank statement.
The provider of the terminal, the electronic payments company Elavon, was the victim of a fraud of $ 125,000 in this case, indicates the denunciation. A bank (with the name redacted) also paid the price, for an amount kept secret.
As part of the embezzlement, a man was reportedly visited by a bailiff for missed payments on a vehicle he had in fact never rented. He filed a complaint with the Laval police for identity theft.
Another person saw their personal information used to fraudulently issue two credit cards.
In large scale
One of the partially discouraged denunciations makes it possible to understand that the problem had reached a significant extent. In February 2019, detective Patrick French also attended a meeting on this subject with investigators from Desjardins in its main offices in Montreal.
In June 2019, the Sûreté du Québec took over from the Laval police to lead the investigation. Search warrants that his agents obtained two months later specified that the authorities were considering accusing Sébastien Boulanger-Dorval and alleged accomplices of having acted “for the benefit of a criminal organization”.
More than two years later, the police still have not laid any charges.
The warrants obtained by Laval agents notably allowed the search of the offices of Solutia Finance in June 2019. This private loan company belonged to Jean-Loup Leullier-Masse, suspected of having bought the stolen information from Desjardins.
As for the SQ, it is still waiting to be able to consult the evidence seized at the Desjardins offices in Montreal last February. In the context of a “Lavallée” type request, a judge must determine which elements must be excluded in order to protect, in particular, lawyer-client relationships, the secrecy of commercial information and personal information.