Two more plead guilty to corruption
Construction entrepreneurs were part of conspiracy in Project Honorer case
And then there were three.
Only three of the 37 people who were charged in 2013 in Project Honorer, the investigation into widespread corruption and collusion that plagued Laval’s city hall from 1996 to 2010, have charges pending after two more accused — Claude Desjardins, 63, and Giuliano Giuliani, 65 — pleaded guilty at the Laval courthouse on Friday.
With the guilty pleas accepted by Superior Court Justice James Brunton, the only people who still have charges pending in Project Honorer are construction entrepreneur Antonio Accurso, 65, Jean Gauthier, 79, and Claude Asselin, 73, a former director-general of the city of Laval.
Accurso and Gauthier, a retired notary, are scheduled to have a jury trial that begins in October.
Asselin appeared before Brunton on Friday and his lawyer, Gérald Soulière, asked to have his case carried over to next week.
On Friday, the two construction entrepreneurs pleaded guilty to being part of the conspiracy that saw many construction and engineering companies agree to be part of a system that determined who received contracts from the city. In exchange, the companies paid back money to city officials, including Gilles Vaillancourt, the mayor of Laval while the system of collusion operated.
Desjardins and Giuliani also both pleaded guilty to fraud.
Desjardins, an executive with an asphalt company, will be sentenced next week on three charges in all. He also pleaded guilty to breach of trust.
Giuliani was sentenced to a 12-month prison term that can be served in the community. He is the 21st person to be sentenced in Project Honorer. Only four of those sentences have involved jail time.
Vaillancourt is serving a six-year prison term and Claude Deguise, the former head of engineering for the city, between 1998 and 2008, is serving a 30-month sentence.
Asselin was the city’s directorgeneral between 1996 and 2006.
While presenting a joint recommendation on Giuliani’s sentence on Friday, prosecutor Claude Dussault said Giuliani’s involvement in the collusion scheme was limited to a period between 2006 and 2009.
“The evidence reveals that, contrary to other cases involving collusion where the companies that (participated) agree without the knowledge of the party awarding the contracts, this system operated with the knowledge of Mayor Gilles Vaillancourt and of certain bureaucrats in the municipal administration,” Dussault said, reading from a statement.
A large section of the statement is under a publication ban because of the coming jury trial.
Dussault also said Giuliani, the head of Giuliani Construction Inc., was awarded three contracts while he was part of the collusion system. He paid $10,000 in cash to be part of it.
“But the accused submitted, between 2006 and 2009, bids (for municipal contracts) on several occasions and that, on the request of other competitors,” Dussault said. It was an apparent reference to how bids were submitted to create the appearance of competition among the companies.
To date, the owners or representatives of at least 15 construction and engineering firms have admitted they were involved in the bidrigging process.
Another factor that was considered before Brunton agreed accept Giuliani’s sentence was he recently received noticed the city of Laval intends to sue him for $5 million. He is trying to settle that issue out of court and plans to retire after it is done, Giuliani’s lawyer said.
Accused submitted, between 2006 and 2009, bids on several occasions and that, on the request of other competitors.