Notorious swindler returned to halfway house
Vincent Lacroix, the founder and EX-CEO of Groupe Norbourg who was convicted of bilking more than 9,200 investors out of $115 million, has been returned to a halfway house seven years after he was granted full parole.
According to the summary of a decision made by the Parole Board of Canada this week, Lacroix, 54, was returned to the halfway house in August after he was arrested following an argument with a neighbour.
He is still serving a 17-year sentence that began in 2008 after he was convicted on 51 Quebec Securities Act violations for bilking investors out of their savings between 2000 and 2005. His first sentence was later increased in 2009 to the current 17-year prison term. He pleaded guilty, in Quebec Superior Court, to 200 counts of conspiracy to commit fraud, fraud, use of the proceeds of crime, conspiracy to make fake documents, and creating fake documents.
He was granted day parole in 2014 and, according to the summary, he respected the conditions imposed on him by the parole board for years.
“On August 27, 2021, however, you were arrested following a verbal altercation, with a neighbour, in which you (allegedly) threatened the person. It looks like you reacted to what you yourself perceived to be threats from that person toward your family,” the board stated in the decision. “A complaint was lodged with the police, following which you were released on a promise to appear and subject to a condition not to communicate with the victim, nor to present yourself at their home.”
The summary notes Lacroix has not been charged with a crime related to the incident, but Quebec's office of criminal prosecutions has yet to make a decision on the file.
Three days after he was arrested, Lacroix called his parole officer and reported what had happened. The summary describes how his case-management team decided he should return to a halfway house to avoid coming into contact with his neighbour.
Lacroix complied with the order and has been residing at a halfway house ever since, even though his neighbour moved away earlier this month.
The parole board decided this week that Lacroix should continue to reside at a halfway house for another three months.
“The behaviour you are currently accused of constitutes a major breach of one of your usual conditions of release, namely that you should respect the law and not disturb public order,” the author of the summary wrote. “Under the circumstances, the board considers it is justified to establish a more significant framework to give you time to understand your behaviour yourself and to set up, with the help of your case-management team, the necessary guidelines to avoid a recurrence.”