A Bank of Nova Scotia employee with ties to tech communities in Toronto and Montreal was recently charged after police reported a teenage girl was lured through social media and sexually assaulted.
Suhail Shergill, the director of data science and model innovation for ScotiaBank, was arrested July 4. He was charged with two counts of sexual assault, two counts of sexual interference, luring a child under 16, accessing child pornography, possession of child pornography and making an invitation to sexual touching.
According to various media reports, including the Toronto Star, police say there may be other alleged victims, and that Shergill used the name “Shawn” online.
In May, Shergill was a panelist at Toronto’s AiDecentralized Blockchain and AI Summit, which featured ITBusiness.ca parent ITWC as a media sponsor. His LinkedIn profile describes him as an active member in AI communities in Toronto and Montreal, where he led several research groups. It also says he earned a Master of Science in computer science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
ITBusiness.ca reached out to Scotiabank for comment.
“As this matter is under investigation it would be inappropriate to comment further,” a spokesperson said in an email.
After several attempts, Shergill could not be reached for comment.