The Sûreté du Québec have arrested four more suspects Thursday morning connected to the massive data breach of personal information of 9.7 million clients at Desjardins.
Sébastien Boulanger-Dorval, 42, Jean-Loup Masse-Leullier 32, François Baillargeon Bouchard, 35 and Laurence Bernier, 29, were arrested by members of the SQ’s Economic Crimes Investigation Department.
The four suspects will appear in court Thursday afternoon facing accusations including fraud, identity theft and information trafficking identifiers.
These arrests were part of what the SQ are calling their ‘Portier’ project that targets individuals involved in data theft.
Charles Bernier (Photo: Sûreté du Québec)
The SQ also announced in a press release that Charles Bernier, 31, and Mathieu Joncas, 38, who are believed to be out of the country, are also subject to arrest warrants in connection to the data breach.
Mathieu Joncas (Photo: Sûreté du Québec)
Two more suspects, Maxime Paquette, 38, and Juan Pablo Serrano, 38, have Canada-wide arrest warrants issued against them as well. The SQ say both are on the run and considered to be among the most serious criminals sought in Quebec.
Thursday’s arrests follow three arrests made on Wednesday. Imad Jbara, 33, Ayoub Kourdal, 36, and a third suspect were arrested by Laval police in this case.
These suspects face charges of identity theft, possession of identifying information, trafficking in identifying information and fraud over $5,000.
Laval police said that these individuals allegedly participated in fraud totaling $8.9 million between September 2018 and January 2019.