RCMP hits Immigration Canada employee with 97 charges for allegedly selling passports
Stewart Bell | July 18, 2014 | Last Updated: Jul 19 8:58 AM ET
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The RCMP is searching around the world for 18 suspects carrying passports they allegedly obtained through a Citizenship and Immigration Canada employee now facing dozens of criminal charges.
Aline Rozeline Zeitoune, 50, who worked in the CIC passport section, was charged with breach of trust and 96 other counts including selling identity documents, passport forgery and making false statements, the RCMP said Friday.
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According to police, 22 people, at least some of them foreign nationals, were able to obtain Canadian passports under false names, birthdates and addresses as a result of the misconduct of the Toronto civil servant. Only four have been caught so far.
They are: Luke Tyler (alias Wayne Miller), 49, a Jamaican described by police as “no longer in Canada”; Evgeni Eliash (alias Evgeni Rubin), 36, an Israeli who is in custody; Luis Cabrera (alias Luis Moyano), 54, of Uruguay, who is also “no longer in Canada”; and Srinivas Gottiparthi (alias Sushanth Goud) 38, of India, who is being detained. “These people were not from Canada and were not entitled to Canadian passports,” Sgt. Rollings said. They were charged with passport forgery.
The investigation began in March 2013 after CIC contacted the RCMP about suspicions an employee was processing fraudulent passport applications.
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She was put on leave without pay when the review began. If she is convicted, the government will take further action. “Corrective measures were taken to ensure that this type of compromise is no longer possible,” CIC spokeswoman Johanne Nadeau said.
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With the passports, criminals would have been able to live in Canada under fake identities and travel undetected, but the names on the documents are now likely on international watch lists, which would render them useless. There was no indication from police the case was related to terrorism.
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