Canada's first "foreign interference" arrest
(But it's really a Security of Information Act arrest...)
It’s nice to be back and getting all caught up on security and intelligence news. Let me first say a warm welcome to the hundreds of new subscribers to Insight Intelligence that signed up while we were on holidays. We appreciate you and hope you consider upgrading to become paying subscribers. It helps us keep our articles fresh and timely! This story broke while I was on holiday, and it was a pretty exciting time. Foreign interference? Money laundering? Financial crime experts? Sign me up! I’ll be keeping an eye on this as it unfolds, so I thought it would be worthwhile capturing a few facts & suppositions here. Enjoy, and as always, if you have any questions or comments, leave them below and I’ll do my best to answer them. Happy reading!
The Facts
On 21 July 2023, a retired RCMP officer (William Majcher) was arrested and charged with “foreign interference”, according to an RCMP press release. He is accused of using his knowledge and extensive network of contacts in Canada to obtain intelligence or services to the benefit of the People’s Republic of China. He’s charged under the Security of Information Act (the same act that Cameron Ortis is charged under).
Canada does not technically have any foreign interference legislation, so the RCMP is stretching things a bit, but we should also take this phrasing as a signal from them about how they conceive of this investigation: in broad terms, part of the foreign interference portfolio.
(There’s a case to be made that Canada actually has a lot of laws targeting foreign interference; the issue is just that they’re spread out across a lot of different pieces of legislation, from the Security of Information Act to the Elections Act to the Conflict of Interest Act, etc.)
Police allege that he used his contacts and knowledge to identify and intimidate an individual outside the scope of Canadian law. The offences are alleged to have occurred between 2014 and 2019 in Canada, Hong Kong, and China, and he’s alleged to have conspired with other individuals, including Kenneth Ingram Marsh. As part of his bail conditions, Majcher is also prohibited from speaking with Ross Gaffney, a former FBI supervisory special agent, sometimes described as Majcher’s mentor.
As a fun aside, Majcher and Gaffney appeared on QAnon promoter & COVID conspiracy theorist Robert David Steele’s podcast in 2020 (Steele is a former CIA agent). Steele later died from COVID19 after refusing to be vaccinated. In 2019, Majcher indicated to a UK all-party Parliamentary group that he was working to help the Chinese government recover US$1.2 trillion in funds acquired through fraud. He has worked for a variety of Chinese private and state-owned entities. He’s also a noted expert on money laundering and financial crime1 and on his LinkedIn profile, he claims to have trained Canada’s Financial Intelligence Unit FINTRAC. I never came across him during my time there, so any training likely happened before I joined in 2008.
Marsh is listed as one of Majcher’s co-conspirators in the charging documents, although he is not currently facing any charges. In another interesting turn of events, Marsh also appears to be suing his former employer, a Canadian risk management, investigation, and intelligence firm, after being fired over allegations that he committed fraud. (I haven’t been able to independently verify this yet.)2
The context
We don't really know what is going on in this case yet (it returns to court on August 29th), but let’s take a look at some context.
In 2014, China launched Operation Fox Hunt (and Operation Sky Net). Both operations target Chinese nationals living overseas that are accused of financial crimes, often relating to corruption. China sends covert teams abroad to bring people “to justice” in China; however, these operations have also been used to target political dissidents, and in some cases, individuals accused in these operations are political opponents / wrongly accused. In short: just because someone is a target of Operation Fox Hunt or Operation Sky Net does not mean that they committed any crime. It might also mean that they’re an enemy of the People’s Republic of China, or have made political enemies. More recently, Operation Fox Hunt’s new principal aim is to suppress dissent among the Chinese diaspora.
These operations are also known to employ former police officers, including, in one high-profile case, a former New York Police Department sergeant who was later convicted of his role in the conspiracy.
In Canada, CSIS warned that Operation Fox Hunt was targeting Canada’s Chinese community. In 2020, the RCMP said they were aware of Fox Hunt, and that they hadn’t yet laid any charges of foreign influenced threats covered by the Security of Information Act.
A 2020 NSICOP report indicated that Chinese police and prosecutors have worked with the RCMP to arrange to meet fugitives in Canada, ostensibly to gather evidence and to discuss the case. Over time, the RCMP imposed increasingly stringent criteria on PRC investigators.
We don't yet know if Majcher is facing charges for activities relating to Fox Hunt / Sky Net, but given his expertise on anti-money laundering, and these operations’s alleged focus on anti-corruption, it seems possible that they are related.
What we know
We don’t yet know very much about this case, but I think one thing is abundantly clear: this is not going to be boring. You’ve got foreign interference, money laundering, corruption, stalking and conspiracy, and let’s add in a little pro-Trump, COVID19 and QAnon conspiracy theories and call it a day. Oh…and I didn’t even mention the time that Majcher was accused of having an affair with a judge in one of his cases.
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Full disclosure: I do not know any of the individuals in this case (so far), but we do know many people in common, so the names are very familiar to me.
This timeframe is outside the timeframe of the allegations against Majcher, and there is no indication that Marsh’s activities at this company are in any way connected to the allegations against Majcher.
"On a wacky side" When I was young, I knew Steele, and when you're young you're sometimes naive. Around 2010 he started to cry about Clinton's "pizzagate" and there I said to myself; "shame on me" can I dig myself a little hole and bury myself in it so that people don't see my green face of shame!!
I read the book Like War, by P.W. singer and Emerson T. Brooking, at one point in the book they talk about the jerk who showed up in a pizzeria to "rescue" children held hostage. He found himself in the potato vault with a submachine gun!! 14 years behind bars.
Thanks for making me laugh !
Regards
Nicolas Bureau