Four years after the massive theft of data from 9 million of its current and former customers, Desjardins is once again investigating one of its employees, this time on suspicion of stealing nearly $3 million, it has been revealed The newspaper.
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According to our information, the scam happened a few months ago at the Caisse populaire de Saint-Hubert on the south coast of Montreal.
Several employees have been found in recent weeks and investigators from the institution were able to question the suspect last Friday.
Financial fraud involving employees is not uncommon in the banking sector, but in this case the scale of the alleged crime is so serious that Desjardins Group management had to be informed.
cooperation with the police
Desjardins spokesman Jean-Benoît Turcotti declined to reveal the amount of money stolen, but sources told the Journal it was around $3 million.
“Reviews of this situation are ongoing. Desjardins works with the police and in order not to disrupt the work of the police and our internal controls, we cannot provide any additional information,” he said.
According to Turcotti, “no member or customer suffered any financial damage” as a result of the incident.
However, this type of case often results in the loss being borne by the institution and therefore all its members, according to our sources, who do not know if Desjardins will be able to recover the lost amounts in this case.
- Félix Séguin discusses the theft below garden in his court segment, which is broadcast live daily at 8:50 a.m QUB radio :
A real plague
According to KPMG, internal fraud is rampant. More than 17% of businesses in North America have been impacted in the last few months.
According to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Center, total financial losses related to fraud and cybercrime amounted to $530 million in the country last year. That’s a 40% increase from the $380 million lost in 2021.
In recent years, Desjardins has been talked about for security issues related to the data theft that has affected 9 million former or current customers.
The case, which became public in 2019, came to light internally in December 2018 when Desjardins noticed a suspicious transaction, prompting him to file a complaint with Laval police.
In this case, there was no embezzlement, rather the personal information was bought on the black market by brokers who wanted to target potential customers and resold on the dark web.
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