The case of an Ottawa man charged with accessing the personal information of Prime Minister Mark Carney while working at RBC underscores the growing reality faced by many Canadians whose sensitive data is being targeted by organized criminals, experts say.
Experts say those criminal efforts also raise national security concerns that require greater oversight and co-operation between law enforcement agencies across Canada.
“This story makes news because it’s the prime minister, but Canadians are dealing with this every day,” said Christian Leuprecht, a professor at Queen’s University and the Royal Military College who studies national security and intelligence matters.
The RCMP said Wednesday that Ibrahim El-Hakim, 23, is accused of accessing “several” bank profiles without authorization, including the personal information of Carney.
According to an RCMP affidavit filed in court in Montreal and obtained by Global News, El-Hakim is accused of accessing a banking profile belonging to a “Justin Trudeau” on June 17, the same day as Carney’s profile.
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The RCMP has not confirmed if “Justin Trudeau” refers to the former prime minister or another individual with the same name.
The affidavit alleges that the activity was quickly flagged internally by RBC’s monitoring systems and caught on surveillance video, and the bank launched an investigation.
According to the affidavit, El-Hakim admitted to RBC’s security director that he had been creating fake banking profiles and obtaining lines of credit at the request of a person linked to a Telegram group known as AI WORLD, which the RCMP says is believed to be linked to organized crime.
El-Hakim allegedly acknowledged he had received $500 for each fraudulent line of credit he opened and passed along to his alleged criminal contact, earning a total of approximately $5,000.
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RBC employee allegedly accessed Mark Carney’s banking information
The affidavit includes a photo of what is alleged to be El-Hakim’s phone showing a message police say came from the AI WORLD Telegram contact, providing a fake name and other personal details that were allegedly used to create a fraudulent account and obtain a line of credit of $3,000.
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The RCMP alleges El-Hakim defrauded RBC of a total of $68,500 by issuing and emptying fake credit cards starting as far back as November 2023, though the affidavit alleges a majority of the offences occurred in June of this year.
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It comes amid a growing volume of criminal activity targeting Canadians, with hundreds of millions of dollars lost to fraud each year.
The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre says $342 million has been lost by victims of fraud in the first six months of this year.
In 2024, Canadians saw $647 million in fraud losses, up from $530 million in 2022 and $383 million in 2021.
Superintendent of financial institutions Peter Routledge, the head of Canada’s independent financial regulator, warned Thursday that security risks are rising amid shifting geopolitical and technological landscapes and that the industry needs to adapt quickly.
“That could be cyberthreats, could be third-party risk, it could be attacks from transnational criminal organizations, which often are called money laundering threats, it could be foreign interference,” he said at an Institute of International Finance forum in Toronto.
“The threats, the incoming attacks are rising in intensity and frequency, so invest to build up your defences.”
How does suspicious activity get flagged?
Telegram is often used by criminals because of its encryption features and the company’s resistance to sharing information with law enforcement, according to researchers.
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The company said last year that it would begin providing some data to authorities.
A now-former employee of TD Bank’s anti-money laundering unit in the U.S. was charged last year with sharing customers’ personal information on Telegram, in a case that appears similar to the one against El-Hakim.
Eric Parent, a cybersecurity expert and CEO of EVA Technologies, said the RBC case’s alleged connection to organized crime could mean there are other people involved.
“My instinct and my experience tells me that if you’re catching one, there’s definitely more than one,” he said in an interview.
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Experts say financial institutions like RBC have robust internal systems to detect suspicious behaviour, although Parent says those measures can differ from bank to bank.
In RBC’s case, the RCMP affidavit says the internal banking portal El-Hakim had access to as a branch customer advisor “is partially monitored.”
While searches themselves are not monitored, the affidavit says, the selection of specific clients is.
“They had (allegedly) done it numerous times, and then one of these people happened to be the prime minister,” Parent said.
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The RCMP has not said if it believes Carney’s personal information was shared with anyone after it was allegedly accessed, nor has it detailed if “AI WORLD” is connected to a foreign actor.
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“One of the things that would concern me is that this is a foreign state actor who is attempting to access the prime minister’s details, and I’m sure this is exactly why they punted it to (INSET), because they would want to know whether the prime minister is being targeted for extortion,” Leuprecht said.
Leuprecht says more needs to be done to ensure banks, law enforcement, security and intelligence agencies and the government are aware of and preventing such activity from affecting all Canadians — not just political leaders.
“We’ve had a significant increase in organized crime activity, and the government has not adjusted our national security framework accordingly,” he said.
“We all live with the consequences.”
Legislation passed last year gives the Canadian Security Intelligence Service more powers to collect information from institutions like banks, particularly in foreign interference investigations.
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The Strong Borders Act, or Bill C-2, introduced earlier this year would go further by allowing law enforcement agencies across federal, provincial and municipal jurisdictions to share information.
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The RCMP says El-Hakim could face additional charges as its investigation continues.
El-Hakim is currently facing four criminal counts, including a charge of fraud over $5,000 that carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison. None of the allegations have been proven in court.
He’s next due to appear in court in Ottawa on Oct. 1.
— with files from Global’s Touria Izri and The Canadian Press
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