Exclusive: Toronto currency shop in RCMP leak case tied to $3.5-Billion in Fintrac reports
Cameron Ortis case evidence spotlights RCMP investigation of links between Canada's Big Five banks, Hezbollah money laundering network, and Middle Eastern organized crime cells
In late 2014 Salim Henareh — a Toronto currency shop owner targeted by the Five Eyes as the financial intermediary between Canada’s Big Five banks, Hezbollah’s Dubai-based terror financing kingpin Altaf Khanani, and Middle Eastern organized crime cells in Canadian cities — was identified by Canada’s money laundering watchdog in an astounding $3.5-Billion worth of transactions, according to a sensitive report leaked by Cameron Ortis, the Mountie’s former intelligence director.
And in March 2015, when Ortis illegally shared hundreds of related Fintrac reports to Salim Henareh and warned him of a nascent RCMP investigation, it caused an international “ripple effect” that not only helped Henareh and Khanani’s global money laundering network, but could have enabled their clients to evade financial regulators, a jury in Ottawa heard this week.
Retired RCMP staff sergeant Patrick Martin, a Toronto financial crimes investigator on Project Oryx, which targeted Salim Henareh and Khanani’s Canadian agents, testified he had no idea Ortis had leaked Martin’s investigation plans and related Fintrac documents.
“This was very early on into Project Oryx, the first month, so the fact that Mr. Henareh was being advised he was being looked at by RCMP,” Martin said, “has an effect on everything.”
Two weeks into Ortis’ long-awaited trial the jury’s considerations have become clear.
Ortis is accused of seeking to profit by helping Khanani’s network evade Five Eyes investigations. He’s also accused of seeking to profit from high-tech criminals in Vancouver that offered uncrackable Blackberry phones to clients including Khanani and Mexican cartel bosses.
In doing this, Ortis risked the lives of undercover police officers and agents, two RCMP officers have testified. Ortis, on the other hand, claims he had authorization to share RCMP secrets.