UPAC pulls the plug on 7-year-old AMT fraud probe

Modestie is no more.

Quebec’s permanent anti-corruption squad said Thursday it pulled the plug on a seven-yearold fraud investigation centred on the public transit agency formerly known as Agence métropolitaine de transport.

Dubbed Modestie, the project saw UPAC investigators conduct several searches starting in 2013 because they believed construction materials destined for the AMT’S Train de L’est project might have been diverted to a luxurious Laval home owned by Suzanne Bibeau — the sister of Marc Bibeau, a former key fundraiser for the Quebec Liberal Party.

At the time, police said they had reasonable grounds to think that a fraud and a conspiracy might have been committed in connection with the train line.

The decision to end the probe “follows a rigorous analysis of all the elements collected in the context of the Modestie project,” Quebec’s Unité permanente anticorruption said Thursday in a statement. It was made “objectively, in light of the facts gathered” during the investigation, UPAC added.

Anti-corruption commissioner Frédérick Gaudreau won’t be commenting on the situation “in order to protect police investigation techniques and the privacy of those targeted or implicated,” UPAC said.

Former Quebec Liberal Party director Joël Gauthier spent almost 10 years running the AMT. He left in January 2012 after more than $300 million in cost overruns were racked up on the Train de l’est, which links Mascouche to Montreal.

The AMT has since been rebranded Exo.