Cameron Ortis, the former RCMP intelligence official on trial in Ottawa, says he was tipped off by a counterpart at a “foreign agency” that the people he’s accused of leaking secrets to had “moles” inside Canadian police services.
“I had sensitive information from multiple sources that each of the subjects had compromised or penetrated Canadian law enforcement agencies,” Ortis testified last week.
The testimony is contained in redacted transcripts released Friday evening, more than a week after the former civilian member began testifying in his defence during his unprecedented trial.
Ortis, 51, has pleaded not guilty to all six charges against him, including charges under the Security of Information Act for allegedly sharing special operational information “intentionally and without authority.”
The Crown alleges Ortis used his position as the head of a highly secret unit within the RCMP to attempt to sell intelligence gathered by Canada and its Five Eyes allies to individuals linked to the criminal underworld.
Ortis told the jury that while he was leading the RCMP’s operations research (OR) unit, he was contacted by a counterpart at a “foreign agency” in 2014. While he said there are “significant limits” on what he can say, he stated that he took an encrypted phone call in his office.
“It was very compelling, and it demonstrated clearly a direct and grave threat,” Ortis said.
“I could corroborate much of the information by looking at existing OR files and RCMP holdings.”
Online ‘storefront’
That counterpart, according to Ortis, briefed him about a “storefront” that was being created to attract criminal targets to an online encryption service. A storefront, said Ortis, is a fake business or entity, either online or bricks-and-mortar, set up by police or intelligence agencies.
The plan was to have criminals use the storefront — an online end-to-end encryption service called Tutanota — to allow authorities to collect intelligence about them.
“So if targets begin to use that service, the agency that’s collecting that information would be able to feed it back, that information, into the Five Eyes system, and then back into the RCMP,” Ortis said.
The Five Eyes is an intelligence-sharing alliance made up of the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Ortis said that, based on the information he received, he identified 10 potential subjects who would be suitable for recruitment by Tutanota. He said he later winnowed down the list to four people who were in Canada: Vincent Ramos, Salim Henareh, Muhammad Ashraf and Farzam Mehdizadeh.
Ortis is accused of sharing information in 2015 with Ramos, the head of Phantom Secure, a Canadian company that made encrypted devices for criminals.
Ortis said it was “internationally embarrassing” that Canadian police had not been able to crack down on Ramos’s operation.
The trial has already heard how Henareh, Ashraf and Mehdizadeh were considered of interest to police as part of an international money-laundering probe.
Ortis said Henareh “was involved in money laundering, proliferation of technology, human smuggling, and he had connections to Iran.”
Ashraf, he said, “was a large-scale money launderer” who “had direct connections to terrorist groups.”
Ortis said it looked like police were moving in on Mehdizadeh, so he turned his attention to his son Masih.
The accused said there was information suggesting the younger Mehdizadeh was involved in money-laundering and proliferation of prohibited technologies to sanctioned countries.
“Computer technologies and material technologies. So, things like ceramics and specialized plastics, and specialized metals,” he told the jury.
“The primary use of those technologies is in weapons development programs.”
‘Significant concern’ about leaks
Defence lawyer Mark Ertel asked Ortis if he had information suggesting the targets were aware of law enforcement activities.
“I did,” said Ortis. “They had moles.”
Ortis said he was not affiliated with organized crime and was not looking to sell information for money.
“I did not lose sight of my mission,” he said. “The mission from the beginning of my career until the time I was arrested was to meet the threat to Canada.”
Ortis said he didn’t brief his superiors on what he’d heard from the foreign agency because he had agreed to strict caveats requested by his foreign contact and he had “significant concern” about leaks.
Ortis said he was acting on multiple sources of authority: his job description, the policies of the OR, intelligence priorities laid out in memoranda to cabinet at the time, and the “trust relationship” — which he described as the need to protect allies’ information but also to act on it when required.
“Did you become an enemy of Canada at some point?” said Ertel.
“No, I did not,” said Ortis.
Different email addresses
The jury has already seen a number of emails Ortis sent Ramos.
One implies an associate of Ramos “met someone friendly” while undergoing a secondary border inspection at the Vancouver airport. The jury has heard that individual was an undercover officer meeting Kapil Judge, who also worked at Phantom Secure.
Ortis pushed back on the idea that he had exposed an undercover agent to Ramos.
“You would have to provide the individual’s name,” he told court.
Ertel also asked — if the goal was to get the targets to use Tutanota — why Ortis communicated with Ashraf using a mailbox.org address.
“Did you have a plan what would happen if there was a response at the [mailbox.org] address instead of the [Tutanota] address?” asked Ertel.
Ortis said there was a plan but “that’s something I can’t talk about.”
Under cross-examination, Crown prosecutor John MacFarlane asked why Ortis didn’t approach one of the Five Eyes partners to discuss his plans with them “just generally.”
“I don’t recall,” said Ortis.
“You were given this information, but you say you were told you couldn’t share with anybody, and not even anybody within the RCMP?” MacFarlane asked.
“It’s a dilemma,” Ortis answered.
The Crown is expected to resume cross-examination on Tuesday.