An employee at the Royal Bank of Canada in Ottawa has been charged by the RCMP for allegedly accessing the banking profile of Prime Minister Mark Carney as part of a criminal scheme. The RCMP revealed on Wednesday that Ibrahim El-Hakim, 23, faces charges including fraud over $5,000, unauthorized use of a computer, identity theft, and trafficking in identity information.
Court records indicate that El-Hakim also accessed the banking profile of a person named Justin Trudeau; however, it was clarified by the RCMP that it was not the former prime minister’s profile. An affidavit submitted to secure computer data preservation for the investigation outlined that El-Hakim, employed by RBC in 2022 near Parliament Hill, misused the bank’s IT services for illicit activities such as unauthorized access to multiple banking profiles and fraudulent actions.
El-Hakim’s activities were largely captured on video, and he confessed to the accusations during an interview with RBC’s internal security. He claimed to have been enticed into the scheme by an individual named “AI WORLD” on the messaging platform Telegram. The police believe this account is linked to organized crime, as per the affidavit obtained by CBC/Radio-Canada.
The accused admitted to creating fake bank profiles and securing lines of credit at the direction of the individual on Telegram. El-Hakim accessed the Carney and Trudeau profiles on June 17, as requested by the account. For each completed task, he received $500, totaling around $5,000. El-Hakim was arrested by the RCMP on July 10 and subsequently released on conditions, with a scheduled court appearance in the upcoming week.
The RCMP stated that there was no perceived threat to the prime minister’s safety or national security. The allegations against El-Hakim have yet to be proven in court. RBC confirmed that El-Hakim is no longer an employee at the bank and expressed cooperation with law enforcement in the investigation. Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne highlighted the importance of robust privacy measures in Canada’s banking sector in light of this incident.
