Hacking telecommunications signals | Search at the “Hugh Hefner” of Quebec

Éric Grenier, considered by the police to be a Hells Angels relation, was visited by investigators from a new Sûreté du Québec (SQ) anti-money laundering office on Monday morning in Laval, in a rare investigation of alleged hacking of telecommunications signals.

Downloading or hijacking telecommunications channels or works and distributing them is illegal in Canada.

According to our research, Grenier, 50, is a director of numbered companies behind Arubox.tv.

This offers, at $250 each and $25 per month, a decoder that uses IPTV technology and the possibility of receiving, at all times, 3,500 channels from Quebec, Canada, the United States and elsewhere in the world.

On its website, Arubox.tv presents itself as “the future of TV” and as a TV provider offering “all channels, all films, all series in all languages”, and “direct access to sporting events “.

On his Facebook page, Éric Grenier, once nicknamed the “Quebec Hugh Hefner” because of his involvement in adult entertainment, has been openly promoting Arubox.tv or set-top boxes since at least 2020. in 48 hours. You want a movie or a series, it will be done in less than 48 hours “, can we read on one of his publications from September 2022.

According to our findings, Grenier often travels to Aruba, which would be the origin of the name of his company.

At least 6000 clients

According to police sources, the number of Arubox.tv customers has doubled in two years: the company currently has between 6,000 and 7,000, while it would have had between 3,000 and 4,000 in 2021, before the launch of the survey called Radiophony.

On a quick calculation, 6,000 customers, at $25 a month, is $1.8 million.

It is a group of private telecommunications companies, led by BCE (Bell), which would have filed a complaint with the SQ.

These companies have not been able to assess their losses, but they are estimated to be in the millions of dollars, according to the police.

Investigators from the Office of Criminal Assets Recovery and Money Laundering Conduct Five Searches Monday; in Grenier’s condo in Laval, with an alleged accomplice in Saint-Eustache and with a relative of Grenier in Brownsburg-Chatham, in the county of Argenteuil.

These are searches under investigation. No arrests or charges are expected at this time.

Blocking orders, targeting bank accounts and Éric Grenier’s condo, valued at nearly $500,000, will however be requested.

At the end of the investigation, if the evidence is sufficient, charges of theft of telecommunications services, possession of a device for the use of telecommunications facilities or services, theft of a person having a right of property, money laundering and conspiracy could be filed.

A person convicted of laundering the proceeds of crime is liable to a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

The Quebec Revenue Agency (ARQ) could also be interested in the file.

The shadow of Hell’s Angels

According to our information, Éric Grenier was seen in the company of members of the Hells Angels during the investigation and the police do not rule out that a rebate will be paid to the criminal organization.

The police also do not rule out links with a member of the Red Devils, school club of the Hells Angels, in the Quebec region.

There are approximately 20 investigators from the Office of Criminal Assets Recovery and Money Laundering everywhere in Quebec and they work directly with their colleagues from the Regional Mixed Squads (ERM) and the Organized Crime Repression Squad (ENRCO), whose mandates are to attack organized crime and its leaders.

“It’s a demonstration of the strategy of attacking organized crime from all angles. We now have a money laundering office that falls under our organized crime division, so we decided to undertake this investigation,” The Press a police source that we can now expect to see more restraining orders in Sûreté du Québec investigations into organized crime.

One of the last known police investigations into telecommunications signal thefts was conducted in 2018 by the RCMP, reported The Press in the fall of that same year.

The federal police had searched the home of a former Videotron employee and seized technological equipment in an investigation targeting Cielo 4K, an internet TV distribution service.

To reach Daniel Renaud, dial 514 285-7000, ext. 4918, write to [email protected] or write to the postal address of The Press.