Front Burner - Did an ex-RCMP boss have secrets for sale?

Episode Date: November 9, 2023

Inside the trial of former RCMP intelligence director Cameron Ortis, who’s facing allegations he tried to sell secrets to some of the very people police were targeting. What sensitive documents do police say Ortis exposed? For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. How are an encrypted phone dealer and international money laundering network involved? What’s behind the defence’s bombshell claim that Ortis was acting on foreign intel? CBC Parliamentary reporter Catharine Tunney returns to explain.

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. Hi, I'm Damon Fairless. Cameron Ortis was the Director General of Intelligence for the RCMP, with access to some of the police's most carefully guarded secrets. But for the past five weeks, he's been in a courtroom, accused of trying to sell secret info to some of the very people police were investigating.

How are you feeling today, sir? Good, good. It's been four years since Ortis was arrested, and this is the first time charges under Canada's Security of Information Act have ever been tested in court. We're finally getting details about alleged money launderers, a phone dealer for criminals, and a partially encrypted USB drive with a folder simply called The Project. Ortis has pleaded not guilty, and last week he took to the stand behind closed doors. His defense says he acted within his authority and was protecting Canada from, quote, serious and imminent threats. It's obvious that the case is all about authority.

What the significant national threats to Canada and the world were, the urgency of the situation, the failure of other attempts by the RCMP to solve these problems. CBC parliamentary reporter Catherine Tunney covers national security and the RCMP. She told us about the charges against Ortis in 2019. She's back now to explain all the twists. Hey, Catherine, thanks so much for coming on. Thanks for having me.

Okay, so let's start at the logical place. Let's start with the man at the center of this case, Cameron Ortis. Before these charges, what did he do for the RCMP? What kind of information was he privy to? What was his role? Yeah, so this case has really kind of put the RCMP on the operating table, and we're kind of getting to learn a lot about its insides. That's because Cameron Ortis led this unit. It was called Operations Research, or the OR, as we heard many times throughout this trial. And he basically was kind of asked

to start it and build this team, build this unit, and that they would have access to Canadian intelligence, you know, CSIS, our spies, also intelligence from CSC, which is our signals intelligence unit as well. But also that they would have access to Five Eyes intelligence. And Five Eyes, that's the intelligence alliance that Canada is a part of. It also includes the U.S., U.K., Australia, New Zealand. So that unit would also get to see all of that. So that unit would also get to see all of that. And their job essentially was to sift through that and then kind of nudge or brief RCMP senior leadership if there were any kind of threats. But to't know about it, that's not good for anyone, right? So they were kind of meant to act as this bridge, I suppose, between intelligence and then the police. But we're supposed to stay as far away as possible from criminal operations, with one person even saying, like, we hope that criminal operations

doesn't even know that we exist, that we're kind of existing here in the shadows. The bosses seem to love his work. He was this rising star, the RCMP. He's a civilian member. So, of course, a lot of the time when we think the RCMP, we think, you know, police. But he was not that. He has a background in academia, and that's the way he came in. So for him to have this path was quite incredible. And, you know, he was, one boss even said in court, you know, I was a huge fan of his work and he was one of the smartest people I've ever met. So basically, Ortis is dealing with really top secret stuff here in his role. Yes, almost the top of the top secret information and more than other people at the RCMP would ever have access to. You know, we're talking about Canada's most prized, most valuable intelligence and also from other countries.

OK. So, Catherine, we last spoke to you about Ortis after his arrest in 2019, which was a big moment of shock for the intelligence community. Accused of communicating sensitive information and gathering more this past year with the intent of selling it to a foreign government. Ortis had access to enough secrets to be bound to secrecy for life. A nightmare scenario. His arrest, sources say, set federal departments scrambling to assess the possible damage. We had a lot of questions back then

about what was behind the charges and then we went like four years without any real answers. So when this finally began about a month ago, this trial, what did we start to learn about what Ortis is specifically accused of? So the Crown alleges that Ortis used his position within the RCMP to sell intelligence to police targets. So, you know, we've gone through his

position and the information they had access to. And the Crown says that he took that intelligence and then was trying to sell it to the very people that police had on their radar. And the Crown says that he took that intelligence and then was trying to sell it to the very people that police had on their radar. And the Crown says not only did this or could this have compromised police investigations, it put our relationship with our allies at risk. And it also potentially put undercover officers' lives at risk as well. Ortiz has pleaded not guilty here, but can you lay out specifically what the charges are? has pleaded not guilty here, but can you lay out specifically what the charges are? Yes, well, he faces six charges in total, and four of those, perhaps the most serious, are under the Security of Information Act, and that's kind of the law that we have to make sure that leaks don't happen, or to someone who is permanently bound to secrecy, so that's kind of

where these charges come from. And he's accused of sharing special operational information without authority to three people. And then he's also accused of trying to share special operational information with a fourth person. Okay, so Catherine, I want to go through some of the people Ortis is accused of trying to sell secrets to here, starting with a BC-based firm called Phantom Secure Communications. So Phantom Secure sold encrypted phones to criminals, so drug dealers, money launderers. And when the FBI arrested its CEO, a guy named Vincent Ramos, in 2018.

I'm Vince Ramos. I'm from Vancouver, B.C. I have a background in the telecom mobile phone industry. Vincent Ramos sold his encrypted BlackBerrys to the Mexican Sinaloa Group, founded by the notorious Joaquin El Chapo Guzman. The FBI let the RCMP look through Ramos' computer. So what did the RCMP find? Yeah, so Ramos' arrest really kind of tipped off the police that something was happening with inside the RCMP. We heard testimony from a former RCMP staff sergeant, Guy Belli. He was the

guy who was working with the FBI on this case, given that Vincent Ramos was Canadian. There was, you know, interest from Canada and also from the U.S. So he was allowed to go through Ramos' laptop, and he said he was totally shocked when he opened it up, and he realized that someone was sending emails to Vincent Ramos with kind of snippets of documents, intelligence documents, documents from Canada's money laundering agency, FinTrack, as well. And, you know, the sender asked for about $20,000 from Ramos to send more intelligence. And then the Crown, in their case, as you know, through some kind of technical sleuthing,

they, of course, are alleging that that sender is Ordis. And as part of the investigation, you know, police went into his apartment here in Ottawa and they looked through his devices. And there was what essentially is an encryption software on a USB device. And they were able to partially decrypt what was on that. And on that USB, they found this tree, if you will, of all these different folders, and it was called The Project. And on that, they found more emails, which are now, of course, court exhibits. And they allege that Crown says that Ortis is the sender. He wrote to Ramos saying, you know, I assure you, this is a business

proposition, nothing more. And in one of those emails, the sender is suggesting to Ramos that one of Ramos's associates at Phantom Secure, did they meet someone friendly at the Vancouver airport? And we heard in court that that was an undercover officer. So, you know, that information is being shared with him. And at one point, Ramos is writing back, kind of questioning, one, who the sender is, and two, saying, like, you know, what do I do with this? Like, how do I interpret what you've sent me? Because it's just partial parts of documents, not the whole document. Because, of course, Ordis was asking, allegedly asking for money to send all of the information. And one of the emails, he allegedly kind of lays out how to interpret this.

Like, hey, this is a FinTrack document, which means that you'll be able to see what goes off on their radar. And then you can kind of not do that so that you can fly under the radar. So he was also kind of explaining to Ramos what to do with that information. Kind of a paint-by-number. Yeah. Wow. Okay, so this trial was kind of a keyhole that allowed us to get a peek into the RCMP investigation, which was going after

Phantom Secures, an investigation called Project Saturation. So Phantom Secures, this BC-based firm enabling crime around the world. So I guess I'm curious how our global allies feel about the RCMP investigation. Well, we heard that they weren't all that happy, to be honest. We heard through different testimony that there was pressure coming from our international allies. And at one point, you know, this assistant commissioner, Todd Sheen, who was Orris' direct boss, said for him it was an embarrassment that the police had not been able to crack down on this company that was based in Canada,

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Yeah, so again, around 2015, the Five Eyes were alert to this major money launderer, a guy named Altaf Kanani. And he's based in Dubai, and the U.S. says he had laundered illicit funds for organized crime and for terrorists as well, including helping Hezbollah, al-Qaeda, and including the Taliban as well. So the Five Eyes were all kind of figuring out, like, how do we get to this kingpin, if you will, of money laundering? So everyone was kind of looking at what they could do in their own countries, we've heard through testimony. So in Canada, that meant that police here had their eye on three men in the Toronto area, a guy named Salim Hinari, a guy named Mohamed Ashraf, and Farzan Badezadeh. And police intelligence that we've seen, because they've been entered as exhibits in court, you know,

call these three guys, these players, if you will, agents of Kanani's, who are running money service businesses. We've also seen through different exhibits that have been entered into court, you know, that FinTrack also had an eye entered into court, you know, that Fintrack also had an eye. That's, you know, our financial intelligence agency. It also had eyes on these guys. For example, Fintrack had at one point flagged $3.5 billion in suspicious financial transactions from Henare's company. And in another report, we saw that Bdezadei, he had been the subject of 48 suspicious transactions, including potentially terrorist financing. So these guys were on the RCMP's radar,

and the Ortis is accused of taking some of that information and then trying to, and successfully sending it to them as well as part of this case. So for the files that were found alongside the communications on this USB stick, So for the files that were found alongside the communications on this USB stick, on that drive, the RCMP also believed they found Ortiz's own notes. The notes don't name an author, but what did they say? Yeah, they seem to suggest that, you know, he was kind of writing communication notes to himself, like almost like a script or at least prompts. If you were talking to someone, maybe you want to refer to them. So, for example, at one point, you know, in the notes, it says, you know, 10K for the package, question mark, under kind of a heading that said, like, notes for Farzam, one of the men that Ordis is accused

of trying to reach out to. It said, you know, tell the writer you are on a CSIS watch list and that you, you know, are targets of an RCMP and DEA investigation, and that the ultimate goal is to get to Kanani. So these notes clearly spell out that the police had their eyes on these men. To be clear, none of those men had been charged related to this file. Hanari's lawyer tells CBC he believes that his client is exonerated. We have reached out to LTAF, and we've not received a response. But again, there's no charges. And Medezidai, according to the agreed statement of fact, police were going to arrest him.

But he fled the country in 2017 before that happened. I want to get to just a couple of things with this USB drive. What other files did the RCMP say were on it? Yeah. So, for example, there was one folder that was called what was sent. I'm sure that was helpful in their investigation. And they also found a folder called email addresses. You know, Ortis was not accused of sending documents from the email, you know, cameron.ortis at rcmp.youknow. But they were able to find in that folder some of the emails,

like for example, like one of them was see all things. And then another email address, you know, was variable win. So he's accused of having those written down and then also having the passwords along with them. Like, one of them passwords was Ontario underscore sucks. So that information was also recovered from that document, which is why the Crown says, yeah, he's the man behind these emails. Okay, but then Ortis' lawyers went into this trial saying he had the authority to do everything he did. Last week, they dropped basically a huge bombshell in his defense. What did they say about why Ortis did some of the stuff he's accused of doing? Yeah, so defense lawyer Mark Erdahl, in his opening remarks to the jury, said that Ortis was protecting Canada from serious and

imminent threats. I'm going to actually say exactly what he said because it was quite a moment in court. He said, you know, his actions were in large part a result of secret information communicated to him by a foreign agency. So the defense is not only saying that Ortiz had the authority to act, but that he had a duty to act as well based on this information. And Erdl, his lawyer, went on to say that

Cameron Ortiz is no enemy of Canada. And he kind of left it at that. And then Ortiz is going to fill in, I suppose, the other details. We do know from the defense that sounds like we'll never know who that foreign agency is. You know, this, of course, is a case with lots of national security concerns. And Erdl said that Ortiz will be limited in what he can say, that he doesn't have access to all his emails. We have seen

documents already that have been entered into evidence where a lot of it is redacted and Ortis won't be allowed to say, well, behind that redaction is, you know, he's not allowed to do that. So the defense is also making the case that he is defending with one hand tied behind his back. So Ortis himself took the stand last week, and you and I are talking Wednesday afternoon. Right now, we don't know anything he said. Why is that? Yeah, this clearly is a very sensitive case. So last week, you know, all the journalists were in court. We're ready for Ortis to head up to the witness box, and the court takes a break, and we're essentially kicked out of the courtroom, and the doors are locked. He is testifying in camera. This is a motion that

the judge allowed to happen. Other witnesses in this case have also testified in camera. I would point out that we received transcripts of their testimony under 24 hours after they took the stand with some redactions. From our understanding, he testified last Thursday, he testified Friday, and then earlier this week he began his cross-examination. But we do not yet know anything that he has said. We are still waiting for those transcripts. Have there been any discussions about possible motives beyond acting on foreign intelligence? It is quite interesting that the Crown has not really brought that up in their case so far.

Of course, we'll have to wait to see what they said in cross-examination. The question of motive really only has come up from the defense's point of view so far. Of course, we'll have to wait to see what they said in cross-examination. The question of motive really only has come up from the defense's point of view so far. Interestingly enough, like, for example, when they were talking to Todd Sheen, Ortis' boss, Ertl was asking, you know, what comes to mind? Do you think he has any motive? And Sheen was like, I can't imagine in any world why anyone would do this. So as I said, we saw an email suggesting that he was asking for some money, but the Crown really hasn't said what they think his motive is. And clearly the defense is saying, well, his motive is to protect Canada.

So if he is convicted, what might he be looking at in terms of a sentence? Yeah, so the section of the Security of Information Act that he's charged under carries 14 years in jail. He's also accused under the criminal code as well. So, yeah, he's definitely looking at some serious time. So in this trial, we've heard from a number of RCMP and intelligence officials. What have they said about the potential damage for Canada here in terms of our intelligence network and more broadly, our reputation? Yeah, I think the person who kind of put that most clearly while in the witness box was Assistant Commissioner Todd Chingan, who actually, you know, the Crown was showing him a lot of the evidence.

He had not seen it before. or Todd Chingan, who actually, you know, the Crown was showing him a lot of the evidence. He had not seen it before. And he said, you know, he was sick to his stomach looking at the information that allegedly was leaked out. And, you know, he told the jury that he was shaking because that's how damning this is for the RCMP, damning for his relationship, not just with Canadian intelligence, but also intelligence agencies around the world. You know, being part of

an intelligence alliance means that people have to trust you, right, in order to share information. And that often, you know, in this global world, when we're talking about, you know, organized crime, for example, and terrorism, sometimes it is our allies that are tipping Canada off to information or to plots that are happening in Canada. So that alliance is so very important. And to put that at risk, you know, as he said, it clearly upset him while he was testifying. And then on the other hand, too, we have also heard a lot about how this case

dealt with an undercover officer and how that information was shared. And, you know, Sheen, I think, put it well when he said that jeopardizes lives, right? When you're letting people know about an undercover person, you're putting that person's life at risk. And she actually said you could be signing someone's death warrant. That's how reckless sharing that kind of information is.

So we've covered a lot of RCMP controversies, as you have. I'm curious what kind of conversations are happening about whether the RCMP is culpable for allowing what's alleged to have happened here. Yeah, those questions have been building since the arrests in 2019. And I think, you know, it will continue to happen as we get closer to the jury's decision. You know, one on a technical side, how does someone take information out of the RCMP, very sensitive information, and bring it home, as we've seen in this case, and also on a psychological side? I mean, we have heard

testimony that Ortis was very close, or at least friendly, I should say, with the then-Commissioner Bob Paulson. How does that happen, and how are you this rising star, and that you're leading a department, essentially, and that you're then accused of leaking that information to people? So lots of questions. Whether or not Ortis is guilty, the RCMP clearly has seen some room for improvement, relatively that they have made many, many changes, and they've kind of basically built up this whole new departmental security wing to kind of deal with these issues.

But, you know, given the stakes that are at play here, you know, some of this aftermath, it falls to the five eyes, right? You know, do they believe that Cameron Ortis and his story and will they ever trust the RCMP again? All right, Catherine, it's really interesting. Thanks so much for taking the time to talk to us about it. Thanks for having me. All right, that's all for now. I'm Damon Fairless.

Thanks so much for listening to FrontBurner. Talk to you tomorrow. For more CBC Podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.