Ex-official guilty in passport scheme
Sentencing hearing set for June 29 in case of fraudulent documents
Aformer Canadian Passport officer was found guilty Monday of breach of trust and four forgery-related offences for her role in a fraudulent passport operation.
“The defendant’s knowing participation in the scheme to enable impostors to receive genuine Canadian passports was a clear, serious and marked breach of the duties imposed upon her by the terms of her office as a passport officer,” Superior Court Justice Ian Mac- Donnell wrote in his 27-page ruling. “Entitling impostors to receive passports is the complete antithesis of what a passport officer is entrusted to do.”
Aline Zeitoune was employed by Passport Canada for 24 years in its North York issuing office. She had moved through the ranks to hold the position of passport officer, the front-line officials to whom persons applying for passports present their applications and supporting documents.
Passport officers play “a significant role in protecting the integrity of the Canadian passport system,” MacDonnell noted. Between June 6, 2012 and Jan. 31, 2013, Zeitoune processed 24 fraudulent applica- tions on behalf of people who were not who they claimed to be. The applicants were clients of Moshe Gur, who has already pleaded guilty in relation to the scheme and was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison.
Gur, who charged people as much as $15,000 for his help, had known Zeitoune’s ex-husband for many years. Zeitoune agreed to allow Gur’s clients to bypass the pre-screening and queueing system by entering the waiting area through a side door and taking a seat directly in front of the defendant’s counter.
Gur testified at Zeitoune’s trial that the only benefit he was providing for his $15,000 fee was the ability to avoid waiting in line. “His evidence in that respect beggars belief and I reject it,” MacDonnell said Monday reading his ruling in court. “The only reasonable inference is that he wanted the applications to come before the defendant because he believed that, unlike other passport officers, she would not reject them.”
In his summary of the evidence, MacDonnell said Zeitoune “did not conduct a guarantor verification” in relation to any of the 24 fraudulent applications, in contravention of Passport Canada’s policy.
On two occasions while the scheme was ongoing, Gur provided Zeitoune with “a couple of thousand dollars’ at her request,” the ruling states.
“I am satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that it was not a coincidence that all the fraudulent applications that Gur facilitated came to the defendant’s counter to be processed. She was not Gur’s innocent agent. She acted with full knowledge of the nature of his scheme.”
Zeitoune, who did not testify, left downtown Superior Court declining to comment. A sentencing hearing is set for June 29.