National Post (National Edition)
Ex-mayor admits to massive fraud
MONTREAL • The instincts that kept Gilles Vaillancourt in power for 23 years never left him, even as he was about to head off to jail.
The former mayor of Laval, Quebec’s third-largest municipality, seemed incapable of helping himself as he made a series of awkward handshakes, including with a few surprised reporters, as he headed into the courtroom on Thursday for a hearing that he knew would result in him being incarcerated.
He made small talk with one reporter, telling her he no longer needed glasses because he had recently undergone laser eye surgery. One of his two lawyers carried a hockey bag that appeared to be full of his personal belongings.
Then Vaillancourt, 75, admitted he took part in a conspiracy to use his position to fill Swiss bank accounts with millions through a system of collusion and corruption between 1996 and 2010.
The mayor who ran Laval from 1989 until he resigned in 2012, earning the nickname ‘The Monarch,’ pleaded guilty to being part of a conspiracy to commit fraud, fraud and breach of trust. All told, he faced a dozen charges, including the more serious charge of gangsterism.
As part of a joint recommendation, Vaillancourt might be required to serve a six-year prison term. As part of the plea agreement, Vaillancourt had already begun the process of reimbursing the City of Laval with $8.6 million, and will turn over the keys to a luxury condo estimated to be worth more than $1 million.
Superior Court Justice James Brunton will decide on Dec. 15 whether the sixyear sentence fits the crime.
The judge asked Vaillancourt if he had anything to say before he makes his decision.
“I sincerely regret the errors that I committed,” Vaillancourt said, referring to what he put his family, friends and Laval through. “I feel a pain that I will have for the rest of my life. I did a lot of things for Laval. But I made mistakes that are unacceptable.”
He was accused of taking part in a scheme whereby the City of Laval doled out municipal contracts in exchange for bribes and illegal donations from construction entrepreneurs. In the weeks leading up to the mass arrests, police had raided numerous engineering firms and businesses in addition to Vaillancourt’s home, condo, offices and his bank safety deposit boxes.
Prosecutor Claude Dussault informed Brunton that, as part of an agreement reached between Vaillancourt, the prosecution and the city of Laval, the former mayor has already had $1.7 million hidden in a Swiss bank account transferred to provincial authorities and another $5.2 million is “in transit.”
Part of a summary of facts agreed upon by Vaillancourt’s lawyers and the prosecution has been placed under a publication ban imposed because many of the other 36 people charged in 2013 as part of an investigation dubbed Project Honorer are scheduled for trial soon.
“The investigation conducted within the framework of Project Honorer demonstrated the existence of a system of collusion and corruption in the awarding of public contracts at the city of Laval,” Dussault told Brunton. “Contrary to other cases involving collusion, where the colluding companies make agreements without the knowledge of the (city) paying, Gilles Vaillancourt and certain bureaucrats in the municipal administration were aware of the system.”
The prosecutor also said the investigation revealed that construction companies and engineering firms agreed to pay a percentage of the contracts they were awarded to be part of the system of collusion.
In Quebec City, Justice Minister Stéphanie Vallée said Vaillancourt’s guilty plea sends a message to Quebecers.
“This file is not done and over with, but I think the message that we have to bring to the population, Quebecers, is that no one is above the law,” she said.
“You have the law, you have to respect it no matter who you are, no matter who you know, no matter what you do,” she said.
Vallée said she is acting on court delays, which are believed to be putting highprofile cases at risk. A recent Supreme Court decision set firm time limits on how long an accused should be expected to wait for trial after he is charged. The limit in Superior Court is 30 months. Vaillancourt was charged in May 2013.