City sues to reclaim $4.5M in fraud case

The city of Montreal has filed a lawsuit against six people and an engineering firm, claiming they should pay the city more than $4.5 million they obtained through a fraudulent system of bidding for city contracts.

The lawsuit, filed Friday morning, names the engineering firm AECOM — formerly Tecsult — and six politicians, civil servants and AECOM executives the city alleges were involved in the collusion scheme.

“My message is very clear: this money was taken away from Montrealers, and we want to have this money back,” said Mayor Valérie Plante.

The six individuals are Luc Benoit, Pierre Asselin, Frank Zampino, Bernard Trépanier, Cosmo Maciocia and Robert Marcil.

The lawsuit alleges that, between 2004 and 2009, AECOM participated in a rigged system when it made bids for city contracts. The city says that thanks to this system of collusion, AECOM was awarded nine contracts through the city’s Service des infrastructures, du transport et de l’environnement (SITE) program. The lawsuit says the firm also won seven contracts with the Rivière-des-Prairies— Pointe-aux-Trembles borough.

The city wants AECOM and the co-defendants to pay a total of 20 per cent of the amount the city paid to AECOM for each of the 16 contracts. The city is claiming a total of $4,519,482.93.

In 2015, Montreal launched a voluntary repayment program that gave companies and individuals an opportunity to reimburse money from public contracts they obtained through collusion, bidrigging or other fraudulent acts dating back to 1996. At the time, former Quebec Superior Court chief justice François Rolland said firms that decided not to participate in the program risked facing civil suits. The program ran until December 2017.

“We feel really confident that we are ready to go after people who decided not to participate in the voluntary program for reimbursement,” Plante said.