City of Montreal has sued Frank Zampino, court hears in his corruption trial
Montreal Crime
By
Frank Zampino, the former president of Montreal's city executive committee, has legal woes beyond the current criminal trial in which he is alleged to have run a bid-rigging scheme involving infrastructure contracts awarded by the city.
On Monday, Zampino, 65, was in his third day of testifying in his defence in the trial at the Montreal courthouse that began in early February. While answering questions from defence lawyer Philippe Morneau, Zampino said he is still a defendant in a civil lawsuit, brought against him and other defendants, through which he is being sued by the city of Montreal.
Zampino said the lawsuit is based on testimony given by Michel Lalonde, a retired engineer and the former president of engineering firm Groupe Séguin, during the Charbonneau Commission, a public inquiry into construction contracts that started in 2011 and concluded in 2015.
When the criminal trial began, the prosecution described Lalonde as the key witness. Groupe Séguin was one of the firms that took part in the collusion.
Lalonde testified that at one point in the scheme he was asked to become 'a spokesperson' for the other engineering firms that agreed to take part in it. He said executives with the other firms felt Bernard Trépanier, the person in charge of fundraising for the Union Montréal political party at the time, did not understand engineering and was doing a lousy job of distributing the contracts.
Some firms complained they had to wait too long to be awarded a contract.
Fundraising for Union Montréal is at the heart of the criminal trial.
Lalonde also told the court that during 2007, he had three meetings with Zampino during which the illegal scheme was discussed. That included a meeting held on a Saturday at the St-Léonard borough hall. Besides being head of Montreal's executive committee, Zampino was mayor of the St-Léonard borough at the time.
During that meeting in 2007, Lalonde alleged that he, Trépanier and Zampino discussed having Robert Marcil, then the head of Montreal's public works department, added to a committee that selected the contracts to be approved by the executive committee.
Marcil, 60, is also charged in the same trial at the Montreal courthouse. Last week, his lawyer said Marcil will be the last of the five accused to present a defence. The other three people on trial are former executives with engineering firms.
Zampino and Marcil face three charges each: conspiracy, fraud and breach of trust.
Last week, Zampino denied Lalonde's allegations and said Lalonde and Trépanier showed up 'unannounced' on the Saturday he referred to. Zampino also said he recalled having other things to do that day and that he tried to get Lalonde and Trépanier out of the borough hall as fast as possible.
The civil trial 'is tied to what we have here,' Zampino told Quebec Court Judge Silvie Kovacevich on Monday, adding the civil case involves Tecsult, an engineering firm that admitted it took part in the scheme. '(Lalonde) basically described the same three meetings (during the Charbonneau Commission).'
Zampino was named to be head of the executive committee after Gérald Tremblay was elected in 2002 as mayor of the newly merged city of Montreal. Zampino's last day in office was on July 2, 2008.
The scheme stretched from 2004 to 2009, and the case involves 34 contracts worth more than $160 million.
The prosecution's theory is Zampino organized a plan to award contracts, offered through public tenders by the city of Montreal, in exchange for illegal financing for Union Montréal. Zampino is alleged to have put in place and orchestrated a system of collusion with the goal of leading the fraudulent awarding of contracts to 13 engineering firms in exchange for political contributions.
Trépanier is alleged to have helped Zampino organize the scheme. In 2017, Trépanier was charged in the same criminal case brought against Zampino, but Trépanier died of natural causes in 2018.
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