Investigators follow digital trail
Court orders Paypal to provide digital details on account that paid for robocalls
OTTAWA — The mysterious “Pierre Poutine” behind the robocalls scandal used a real street address in Quebec when he set up an account to send out misleading election day messages and left a digital trail that could help investigators discover his true identity.
The suspect behind the pseudonym spoke to the owner of Edmonton call centre RackNine when he opened an account to use the company’s voice- broadcasting services — but gave another, more believable name.
“He did not address himself as Pierre Poutine with me,” said Racknine owner Matt Meier. “I would not have taken a client with such a stupid name.”
Elections Canada investigators believe a disposable cellphone registered in Poutine’s name and under the fictitious address “Separatist Street” in Joliette, Que., was the origin of a disinformation campaign to misdirect voters in Guelph, Ont. and possibly other ridings.
Meier said the street address the caller provided was a real address in Joliette, a small town about half- an- hour northeast of Montreal. He said he doesn’t know whether it belonged to the customer who opened the account.
“It looked very much like this was a legitimate person making a legitimate call. … It could very well be this is the exact address and they just haven’t charged the guy yet.”
The call to Racknine came a few days before the May 2 election day, when the customer used his account to launch the robocall blitz sending electors to the wrong polling stations.
The customer’s account with the online payment service Paypal, used to fund the voice broadcasts, also checked out, Meier said. Meier declined to provide further details because he doesn’t want to jeopardize the Elections Canada probe.
Meier says Racknine had no knowledge the customer was using the account for the misleading calls until an Elections Canada investigator arrived at his offices in November. The agency says Racknine is not suspected of any wrongdoing.
Sources close to the investigation say the disposable cellphone in question was purchased not in Joliette, but at a convenience store in Guelph.
An Ontario court has issued an order requiring Paypal to provide records to Elections Canada.
A source close to the investigation says the Paypal payment to Racknine was made using a prepaid gift card that could, like the “burner” cellphone, prove difficult to track down.
More interesting to investigators, however, is the Internet Protocol address recorded by Paypal when the suspect connected to the payment site to create his account.
If the customer logged on to Paypal from a traceable address, Mathews could file another order on the corresponding Internet service provider and obtain the name of the account holder.
But if Poutine was clever and always logged into Paypal from a coffee shop or public Wi- Fi node, tracking could be harder.
Elections Canada investigators, who never comment on investigations, may already have connected the Paypal account to the real Poutine.
After months of patiently following the electronic trail, last week they began interviewing people who worked on the Conservative campaign in Guelph.
In recent days, investigators also have launched probes into reports of misdirected voters in the northern Ontario ridings of Nipissing- Timiskaming and Thunder Bay.
Veteran Liberal election lawyer Jack Siegel said he has never seen anything like this.
“They [ Elections Canada] are taking it very very seriously,” he said. “This is not a typical investigation as carried out by the commissioner’s office in the past.”
Siegel said that if enough voters report that they were dissuaded from voting by deceptive calls, a judge might order a byelection.
“Now you have something that could conceivably be relevant to the seat distribution in the House of Commons,” he said. “It’s one seat, but my God. It’s a seat. It’s who represents people.”