Five Arrested in Desjardins Data Breach Involving $8.9 Million Fraud
Quebec provincial police have arrested five individuals in connection with a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme tied to the data theft of nearly 10 million Desjardins clients. The alleged mastermind behind the operation, Sébastien Boulanger-Dorval, 42, was a former marketing employee at the financial institution until the breach was uncovered in 2019.
Boulanger-Dorval, along with Jean-Loup Masse-Leullier, 32; François Baillargeon-Bouchard, 35; Laurence Bernier, 29; and Charles Bernier, 31, now face charges including fraud, identity theft, and trafficking in identity information.
The fraudulent activities began surfacing when the provincial police identified how suspects obtained personal information from Desjardins, subsequently selling this data to malicious individuals for various fraud schemes. Laval police also arrested three more suspects—Ayoub Kourdal, 36; Imad Jbara, 33; and another unnamed person—linked to the misuse of stolen data, leading to $8.9 million in financial fraud from September 2018 to January 2019.
Investigations revealed that Desjardins had been aware of the vulnerabilities in its security systems but failed to act, which led to a two-year-long breach before authorities intervened.