FBI Charges Former Bank of Canada Employee With Distributing Child Pornography

A seal reading "Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Investigation" is displayed on the J. Edgar Hoover FBI building in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 9, 2022. Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

A former Bank of Canada employee is facing up to 20 years in prison after being charged by the FBI with distribution of child pornography.

Matthew Norman Ballek, 31, of Saskatchewan, was arrested Feb. 7. He is accused of “distributing three video files depicting adult males engaging in sexually explicit conduct with minors via a social media communication application,” the FBI said in a news release.

Mr. Ballek was charged after an undercover FBI agent received copies of the videos Jan. 23 through Telegram, a chat app officials described as popular with “individuals who have a sexual interest in children.”

A federal grand jury indicted Mr. Ballek Feb. 1, and the Saskatchewan native faces between five and 20 years in prison if convicted.

Mr. Ballek’s LinkedIn page says he worked for the Bank of Canada for just over four years, starting in 2017 and ending in June 2021. He then became a financial risk analyst for the World Bank in Washington, D.C.

This is not the first time the FBI has arrested and charged a Canadian with the crime.

Another Saskatchewan man, Clayton Lee Casper, was charged with possession and distribution of child pornography in 2022. While the charges were laid by the Saskatchewan Internet Child Exploitation Unit (ICE), it was a joint investigation with the FBI, a local newspaper reported.

Another joint investigation between the FBI and police in Waterloo resulted in a 47-year-old man from Kitchener being charged with voyeurism, making child pornography, distributing child pornography, and possessing child pornography.

Data from Statistics Canada showed online child exploitation has increased 220 percent in the last 10 years. The majority of the cases involve child pornography crimes, which have quadrupled between 2014 and 2022, the StatCan report revealed.

The number of cases has increased from 32 incidents per 100,000 children in 2014 to 125 incidents per 100,000 children in 2022. StatCan said 2,492 online sexual offences were committed against children in 2022 alone.

Cases of child pornography and online sex offences have increased from 50 incidents per 100,000 children in 2014 to 160 incidents per 100,000 children in 2022, the report said.

The FBI issued a warning to parents in August 2023, revealing details of a new type of online grooming child predators have been engaging in.

“Group grooming” is a technique where a child predator will connect with kids online, on social media or gaming platforms, pretending to be a child themselves. The predator then sends sexually explicit material to the group and gauges the children’s reaction to determine who is open to exploitation.

Jennifer Cowan and Keegan Billings contributed to this report.