Ortis, 47, has not yet entered a plea. He made a brief court appearance in Ottawa, Ontario, by video Friday and dates for his bail hearing will be set next week.
The Mounties have not said who they believe was the intended recipient of information cited in the charges. But the path to Ortis came out of the case of a businessman convicted of helping criminals in the United States, according to the US law enforcement official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not directly involved in Ortis' case.
The tip emerged from a US investigation into another Canadian, Vincent Ramos, who was arrested last year in Washington state. Ramos was accused of using his company, Phantom Secure, to sell thousands of encrypted cellphones, supposedly impervious to wiretaps and other surveillance techniques, to drug cartels and other criminal groups.
While searching his emails, investigators found one offering to sell secrets that law enforcement agencies had about Ramos and his clients, the US official said. The email contained a sample of the information for sale — two or three pages of the Mounties' file on Ramos — and it was traced to Ortis, the official said.
Experts said it was unclear why an intelligence analyst of his stature — the director general of a special cybercrime unit, with a high-level security clearance — might try to make a deal with an equipment supplier like Ramos. And those who knew Ortis said they were shocked to learn of the charges against him.
"The behaviour he's alleged to have engaged in would go against everything we ever saw of him," said Chris Parry, a journalist who met Ortis while he was a graduate student. "This guy worked 15 years in the service of the country when he could easily have taken well-paid corporate positions at any time."
But Parry also noted how private he was and compared him to Superman's alter ego, an unassuming journalist with a secret life. "Clark Kent is the best way to describe him," he said. "In looks and physique, but also in terms of secrecy and genuine dedication to work for the public good."
He appeared to have no social media accounts aside from a LinkedIn profile that said he speaks Mandarin and was an "adviser" to the Canadian government. He said so little about his professional life, Parry said, that he assumed Ortis worked for Canada's version of the CIA, the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service.
Ortis joined the government in 2007, when the intelligence division of the Mounties was expanding to confront cybercrime and terrorism. He arrived with a doctorate from the University of British Columbia — he wrote a dissertation on the misuse of the internet by criminals in Asia, as well as potential ways countries could combat it — and quickly impressed those he met.
Angus Smith, who retired last year as the Mounties' senior intelligence adviser, said that when Ortis arrived at the agency, it was immediately clear that he was an exceptional recruit.
"I was always impressed by his intellect," he said, as well as "by the level of rigor that he would bring to conversations about whatever the issue of the day happened to be."
Like many, if not most, intelligence analysts with the Mounties, Smith and Ortis were classified as civilians. Though they did not carry guns, have badges or wear uniforms, they were active participants in investigations.
From the beginning of his time with the Mounties, Ortis had a view of Canada's most sensitive secrets, said Wesley Wark, a visiting research professor at the University of Ottawa who studies intelligence and national security. Then in 2014, he said, the Mounties' cybercrime team was moved into a larger unit, which by then was under Ortis' direction. Simultaneously, its budget and role were greatly expanded.
The result was that the Mounties became the leading agency in cybercrime efforts in Canada, he said, "and sitting of the center of it all was Cameron Ortis."
For security reasons, analysts did not exchange details with one another about cases, Smith said. He did not know much about what cases Ortis handled, he said.
The Mounties have declined to comment on specific questions about the case, and little information has yet been entered in court.
Ramos, the businessman, pleaded guilty last October. He told investigators that he never followed up on the email or discovered who sent it, the U.S. official said.
"I don't think there is a profile for somebody to become corrupt or to get involved in various forms of malfeasance or to become a traitor," said Smith, the former intelligence adviser.
"I would never describe him as a disgruntled employee," he said of Ortis. "He always seemed like someone who was very proud to be part of our team and very proud of the work he did. He was a very, very hard worker."
Written by: Ian Austen
Photographs by: Dave Chan
© 2019 THE NEW YORK TIMES
