Former RCMP intelligence boss accused of leaking top-secret information set to testify today
Cameron Ortis, a former high-ranking RCMP intelligence official accused of leaking valuable, top-secret information to police targets, is set to testify in his own defence today.
The 51-year-old has pleaded not guilty to all six charges against him, including multiple counts under the Security of Information Act — the law meant to protect Canada’s secrets.
The Crown alleges Ortis used his position as the head of a highly-sensitive unit within the RCMP to attempt to sell intelligence gathered by Canada and its Five Eyes allies to individuals linked to the criminal underworld.
The defence is expected to argue later today that Ortis had the authority to do what he did.
Ortis, a civilian member of the RCMP, was arrested in 2019 after police discovered emails he’s accused of sending to Vincent Ramos.
Ramos, the former Canadian CEO of Phantom Secure Communications, had been on investigators’ radar for years and was suspected of providing encrypted phones to organized crime and money-laundering operations to help them evade arrest.
“You do not know me. I have information that I am confident you will find very valuable,” says one of the emails the Crown alleges Ortis sent to Ramos, who is serving time in the U.S. for racketeering conspiracy.
“I assure you that this is a business proposition. Nothing more.”
Ortis is accused of sending Ramos intelligence police gathered on Phantom Secure, and of asking for $20,000 in exchange for more information.
The documents Ortis is accused of sending to Ramos include reports from the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC), an RCMP criminal intelligence assessment and a document summarizing other western intelligence and law enforcement information on Phantom Secure. The email allegedly sent by Ortis also included information about an undercover agent.
When police searched Ortis’s downtown Ottawa condo, they discovered more documents on an encrypted USB key. They include intelligence reports the Crown says Ortis sent to individuals the RCMP was keeping tabs on as part of an international money-laundering investigation.
Ortis, who led the RCMP’s operations research (OR) branch, is accused of sharing special operational information “intentionally and without authority” with Salim Henareh and Muhammad Ashraf. He also faces one count of attempting to share special operational information with Farzam Mehdizadeh.
Intelligence reports entered into evidence during the jury trial show the RCMP was investigating those three men and their money-services businesses for potential links to Altaf Khanani, once described in a media report as “one of the world’s most wanted fraudsters.”
According to the U.S. government, Khanani’s network laundered illicit funds for organized crime and terrorist outfits, including al-Qaeda and the Taliban. After entering a plea deal in 2017, Khanani served 68 months in prison for conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Documents recovered from Ortis’s home include FINTRAC reports and a report from the Criminal Intelligence Advisory Group, made up of police services from the Five Eyes alliance member countries.
One of the recovered documents includes what appear to be notes outlining ways to approach contacts with information.
“10k for the package? Maybe. But perhaps use this as material that could lay the ground work for future business relationship,” said one note.
Under “Notes to Farzam,” the writer wrote: “You are on a CSIS watch list.”
“You (Aria Exchange et al) are targets of DEA/RCMP investigation, the ultimate goal is to get to Khanani and a few others,” the notes say. The Crown alleges Ortis wrote those notes.
According to the agreed statement of facts, a package of classified material was mailed to Henareh in 2015. Ashraf told investigators he only became aware of emails from accounts the Crown has linked to Ortis following police inquiries in 2019.
Mehdizadeh fled the country before his anticipated arrest in 2017, according to the agreed statement of facts in Ortis’s trial.
Over the past five weeks, the 12-person jury has heard from nearly a dozen witnesses — including former colleagues of Ortis who testified behind closed doors — and has reviewed more than 500 pages of evidence.
Defence to argue Ortis had ‘authority’
Ortis’s defence lawyers Mark Ertel and Jon Doody are expected to lay out their case this morning before calling Ortis as a witness.
The jury has heard from the Crown that most of the facts in the case are not in dispute.
“The case is all about authority, who was in charge, who was in a position to give authority. Those are themes,” Ertel told reporters last month.
“What the threats to Canada and the world were that were posed, the urgency of the situation, the failure of other attempts by the RCMP to solve these problems. And the scenario that Mr. Ortis found himself in as the director of the OR when these events arose.”
Earlier this week Ortis’s former boss, now retired assistant commissioner Todd Shean, said Ortis was “one of the smartest people I ever met” and oversaw an “extraordinary” team.
The OR was set up to sift through Canadian and allied intelligence and brief senior decision makers within the RCMP on threats and opportunities in ways that wouldn’t expose top-secret information in open court.
But Shean said Ortis was never meant to go undercover or reach out to the targets of a police investigation.
“For the life of me right now, I cannot understand,” Shean said when asked by Ertel what could have motivated Ortis’s actions.
“Why would you commit a criminal offence, jeopardize your career, everything you know, everything you do, your friendships, your relationships? Why would you do that? I don’t understand.”
