Corruption trial: Zampino grilled again about alleged extortion attempt by ‘Mr. Three Per Cent'

Montreal Gazette

28-05-2025

Montreal Crime
By
Frank Zampino, the former president of Montreal's executive committee, testified for a second time about one of the more startling allegations to arise from his criminal trial at the Montreal courthouse, where he is charged with running a multimillion-dollar bid-rigging scheme out of city hall.
While being cross-examined by prosecutor Nicolas Ammerlaan for a second day on Wednesday, Zampino, 65 and now retired, was asked several questions about an alleged attempt by Bernard Trépanier, the man who came to be known as 'Mr. Three Per Cent' during the Charbonneau Commission, to extort $1 million from Smart Centres, a real-estate development company based in Ontario.
Trépanier is alleged to have asked for $1 million to give Smart Centres access to a project involving a quarry in St-Michel.
In 2017, Trépanier was charged in Project Fronde, the investigation that is the subject of the current trial, along with Zampino, Robert Marcil, 60, the former head of Montreal's public works department, and three former executives with engineering firms alleged to have taken part in the bid-rigging scheme. Trépanier died of natural causes in 2018.
Throughout the trial, which began on Feb. 3, Trépanier has been portrayed as the go-between for Zampino and the engineering firms that took part in the scheme. Zampino was the head of Montreal's executive committee between 2002 and July 2008, and Trépanier was the head of fundraising for Union Montréal, the political party that Zampino and former Montreal mayor Gérald Tremblay were in.
The Crown's theory in the case is that Zampino organized the bid-rigging scheme and that Trépanier went to executives from engineering firms demanding they kick back three per cent of the value of the contracts they were awarded to Union Montréal.
One of the more startling allegations to emerge in the trial is that while the illegal fundraising scheme was well underway, Trépanier had become so brazen that he simply tried to extort $1 million from Smart Centres. The allegation was part of a civil lawsuit and at least two witnesses heard in Zampino's trial said it happened.
Like all of the incriminating testimony heard at the trial, Zampino continued to deny knowledge of both the scheme or any wrongdoing on Trépanier's part. He has repeated often that he knew Trépanier since 1986 and that he helped organize his political campaigns.
Tremblay testified during the trial and said he informed Zampino that Trépanier would be dismissed from Union Montréal because of the allegation. Zampino has said he has no recollection of the discussion and repeated on Wednesday that he first learned of the situation when Trépanier 'stormed' into his office at city hall.
'I sort of remember the incident. It was many years ago. I was in a meeting and I wasn't able to speak to him. He was emotional, troubled and stressed by the situation,' Zampino said. 'I just told him that I was in a meeting and that I'd be home by 7 o'clock. It was a matter I thought I needed to speak (to him) in person.
'I was extremely troubled by the fact that he told me he had spoken to the chef du cabinet du maire and that he was being accused of having requested a $1-million extortion amount from a representative of Smart Centres.
'I told him clearly that I didn't want any stories. I wanted the truth. I wanted him to tell me exactly what happened because this was a serious allegation.'
Zampino said Trépanier denied the allegation 'and I took his word for it.'
'He told me that this never happened.'
Zampino also said that once he had Trépanier's denial, he decided to discuss the allegation with Tremblay for the first time.
'It was troubling to me because it was the most serious allegation that I had ever heard at the city of Montreal and it involved my political election organizer that was with me since 1986,' Zampino said. 'He gave me a clear and transparent answer to the fact that he had never done this.'
Zampino also denied Tremblay's version of events and said he spoke to the mayor only after he spoke to Trépanier, who was ultimately dismissed from Union Montréal.
Some witnesses who testified in the trial said Trépanier somehow continued to do fundraising for the political party after he was fired and that he did it from an office outside of Union Montréal headquarters.
Zampino's cross-examination will resume on Thursday.