Head of construction company gets nine months’ house arrest
The head of a construction company who bribed a city of Montreal inspector so his company could charge the city through false billing, has been sentenced to a ninemonth prison term he will be allowed to serve in the community.
Antonino Catania, 72, will serve the first half of that sentence under house arrest. During the other half, he will have to respect a curfew between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. One of the few places he is allowed to visit, while under house arrest, is a doctor’s office or a hospital.
“The prognostics are not good,” Quebec Court Judge Pierre Labelle said on Friday while summarizing evidence that was submitted to him concerning Catania’s health, which was a major factor in the joint sentence recommendation presented to the court this week.
Between 2006 and 2008, Catania was the head of the company, Les Entreprises Catcan Inc., that arranged for city inspector François Thériault to get a $30,000 reduction on the cost of a house he purchased in Laval. The company also carried out $10,000 in work on the house before he moved in. In exchange, Catania’s company was able to bill the city for so-called extras on a contract it obtained to do more than $5.2 million of work in two distinct sites in Montreal.
In one case, Les Entreprises Catcan was able to bill the city $10,800 in false invoices for anti-dust products that were never used. In another case, involving the removal of contaminated soil, the company provided more false invoices. But, according to a series of facts submitted as evidence to the court, Sûreté du Québec investigators were unable to determine how much the city was bilked.
As part of the joint recommendation on the sentence, Les Entreprises Catcan will pay a $100,000 fine. One of Catania’s lawyers said
(The whistleblower) gave a statement to police and indicated that Mr. Thériault benefited from a $30,000 reduction on the purchase of land.
he had the certified cheques on hand to pay the fine immediately. Catania also made a $5,000 donation to CAVAC, a group that assists the victims of crime in Quebec.
Thériault pleaded guilty in the same case, in 2015. He was sentenced to a 12-month prison term and fined $30,000. Catania was originally charged in 2013, but the charges related to that case were withdrawn this week and a new game sheet was prepared in anticipation of Catania’s guilty plea. He pleaded guilty to committing a fraud on the city of Montreal, bribing a public official and breach of trust.
Catania and Thériault’s not-sosecret deal was revealed by a whistleblower who used to work for Les Entreprises Catcan. According to the statement of facts submitted to Labelle, the former employee was watching Thériault’s testimony before the Charbonneau Commission, on Nov. 15, 2012, when he noticed the city inspector was lying. During his testimony, Thériault said he received the occasional gift — for example, hockey tickets or a bottle of wine — while he worked as an inspector. But he never mentioned the $40,000 worth of benefits he received from Catania.
“(The whistleblower) gave a statement to police and indicated that Mr. Thériault benefited from a $30,000 reduction on the purchase of land,” lawyers from both sides of the table wrote in the document presented to Labelle. The whistleblower was able to give police insider details like how, at the time the crimes were committed, Catania was not listed as an administrator on the family business but he was “in fact the person who approved all the decisions relative to the company.”