Federal Crown prosecutor Marc Cigana, followed by RCMP officers, arrives for a bail hearing at the courthouse in Longueuil, Que., on July 25.Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press
William Majcher, the retired RCMP officer charged with conducting foreign interference on behalf of China, has been granted bail on conditions that include not communicating with another former Mountie with whom he is alleged to have conspired.
Mr. Majcher was arrested in Vancouver last week and charged with two counts under the Security of Information Act. In a statement announcing the charges, the RCMP alleged Mr. Majcher “contributed to the Chinese government’s efforts to identify and intimidate an individual outside the scope of Canadian law.“
Mr. Majcher appeared briefly at the bail hearing at a Longueuil, Que., courthouse by phone from a Vancouver-area prison, after technical difficulties prevented him from appearing by video conference. The terms of his bail include a $50,000 cash deposit and $200,000 posted by sureties. He must remain in Canada, forfeit his Canadian passport and reside at a particular Vancouver residence or inform the RCMP if he changes addresses.
Court documents allege that the 60-year-old Mr. Majcher conspired with fellow former RCMP officer Kenneth Ingram Marsh, along with “other persons known and unknown.” His bail conditions, set on Tuesday, prohibit Mr. Majcher from speaking with either Mr. Marsh or a man named Ross Gaffney, except through his lawyer for the purposes of preparing his defence. The RCMP has not announced any charges against Mr. Marsh and no one from the force was available for comment on Tuesday.
What we know about the retired RCMP officer charged with conducting foreign interference for China
Mr. Marsh, also known as Kim Marsh, declined to comment when reached by The Globe and Mail by phone. “You must understand, I can’t talk right now. It’s just not convenient,” he said before hanging up. He did not respond to a subsequent request for comment by e-mail.
The former RCMP commander, who is the current president of Marsh Advisory, describes himself as a “global compliance specialist” on the organization’s website. His biography states that he has 40 years of investigative experience in Canada and abroad, including in Asia. After 25 years with the RCMP, he retired as a commander of an international organized-crime investigation unit where the website said he was responsible for large-scale, covert operations in Europe, Asia and North America.
Mr. Marsh wrote a memoir, released last June, about his undercover investigative work called Cunning Edge. He refers to Mr. Majcher as his “Mountie friend” and describes him as a “good undercover operator” with an extensive Rolodex and enviable business acumen.
The other person Mr. Majcher may not contact is Mr. Gaffney, also the name of a former FBI agent who worked with Mr. Majcher on an undercover operation in the late 1990s.
In 1999, Mr. Majcher was assigned to a joint FBI-RCMP sting operation called Bermuda Short, where he was told to represent a fictitious Colombian cartel that was laundering millions of dollars. Mr. Gaffney oversaw that operation. The FBI and the RCMP did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The former FBI agent runs a forensic consulting firm, called Gaffney Gallagher & Philip LLC; he did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The Globe. The company’s website said it specializes in “complex international economic crime investigation, anti-money laundering training, asset tracing, due diligence, special event and crisis and consequence management.”
The charges against Mr. Majcher come amid a national debate on Chinese government interference in Canada, as the country’s intelligence services face pressure to show they are addressing the issue after facing accusations of ignoring it.
After serving in the RCMP from 1985 to 2007, Mr. Majcher became a successful corporate investigator in Hong Kong, drawing on his history in law enforcement. The Mounties alleged in a statement Friday that he “used his knowledge and his extensive network of contacts in Canada to obtain intelligence or services to benefit the People’s Republic of China.“
The former Mountie was arrested after arriving in Vancouver by plane on July 18, before being released because the RCMP did not believe they had enough information to charge him, according to a spokesperson for the police force. He was arrested again two days later and charged with preparatory acts for the benefit of a foreign entity and conspiracy under the national-security law.
Under the Security of Information Act, the Crown can lay charges in any jurisdiction. The RCMP investigation into Mr. Majcher was based in Montreal, which is why court proceedings are taking place in a Montreal suburb while he is being held in B.C., Crown prosecutor Marc Cigana explained.
A guide to foreign interference and China’s suspected influence in Canada
Mr. Majcher has been under investigation since 2021, the RCMP said. The force has not ruled out other arrests.
His LinkedIn page says Mr. Majcher is president of Emidr Ltd. in Hong Kong, a firm his Speakers Connect profile says “deploys military grade cyber technology to assist in cyber security and asset recovery operations.” An RCMP spokesperson said the force believes the Chinese government is one of Mr. Majcher’s clients.
In an Australian TV broadcast in 2019, Mr. Majcher spoke openly about his involvement in Project Dragon, an effort by Beijing to “recover millions of dollars in alleged ‘hot money’ taken out of the country.”
“As long as the claim is valid and as long as we’re doing everything lawfully and properly, I’m a hired gun to help either large corporates or governments to get back what is rightfully theirs,” he said.
Mr. Marsh’s book, meanwhile, details three investigations that the two men worked on together.
The first was an “enjoyable caper” involving a Canadian target living in Costa Rica. Then, in 2010, Mr. Marsh said Mr. Majcher brought him onto an assignment with his client, a Russian millionaire named Vladimir Antonov, through his work with a “financial firm that put deals together and took companies public.”
In 2013, the book reports, Mr. Majcher was brought on to another investigation, this time into funds supposedly smuggled out of Libya by the family of former de facto Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. “Fortuitously, Majcher had been dealing with an Ivory Coast national on a deal,” Mr. Marsh wrote. “This was the perfect scenario, as Majcher would need a visa, which would be facilitated by his business associate. While there, Majcher would be my second set of eyes and ears.”
With reports from Steven Chase and James Griffiths