Quebec Crown stays fraud charges against ex-Union Montréal fundraiser
'Mr. 3%' — Bernard Trépanier — is receiving palliative care, his lawyer says
Quebec's Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP) has ordered a stay of proceedings in two fraud trials involving Bernard Trépanier, a fundraiser for former mayor Gérald Tremblay's now-defunct political party, Union Montréal.
DPCP spokesperson Jean-Pascal Boucher said that decision was made because Trépanier's lawyer has confirmed that his client is receiving palliative care.
Trépanier was alleged to have asked for a three per cent cut from engineering firms for city contracts they won — an allegation which earned him the nickname "Mr. Three Per Cent," according to witnesses who appeared before the Charbonneau commission into corruption in the construction industry.
He was facing charges including fraud and breach of trust in two cases.
The first is the Faubourg Contrecoeur construction project. His co-accused, including the former chair of the Montreal executive committee, Frank Zampino, were acquitted of all charges last month.
In 2016, a judge ordered Trépanier to be tried separately in that case due to his poor health, but the proceedings never began.
He was also arrested in September as part of Projet Fronde, an investigation by Quebec's anti-corruption unit into an alleged municipal contract scheme.
Boucher said the seven other people arrested in that operation will still stand trial.