Frank Zampino defends vacations on Tony Accurso's infamous yacht at corruption trial

Frank Zampino, the former head of the city of Montreal's executive committee, testified Monday at his municipal corruption trial about vacations he took on the yacht belonging to former construction magnate and convicted fraudster Tony Accurso.

The vacations happened in 2007 and 2008 on Accurso's infamous luxury yacht, the Touch. 

Along with Zampino and his wife, Accurso was there with his wife as well as some other guests.

"This was a friend who invited me in a social invitation, I did this in the context of a friendship," Zampino testified about the two vacations, which were each about a week long.

He testified he had known Accurso since the late 80s and that their fathers briefly did business together decades earlier.

Zampino said there was nothing untoward about the trips.

"I never mixed or blurred the lines between my social friendships and my public duty at the City of Montreal," he said.

"I never discussed anything regarding contracts with anyone on that boat," he said.

Zampino said he asked Accurso to send him a bill for the trips, and that Accurso reluctantly agreed. 

Zampino paid $5,000 for each trip.

Accurso was sentenced to four years in prison in 2018 for his role in a collusion scheme over public contracts in Laval, Que. 

Zampino is facing charges of fraud, conspiracy and breach of trust in connection with a similar alleged scheme in Montreal, where he was second-in-command to former mayor Gérald Tremblay from 2001 to 2008.

The prosecution alleges Zampino put in place a system allowing 13 engineering firms to share 34 public contracts with a total value of $160 million between 2004 and 2009.

In return, the engineering firms would allegedly make a donation of three per cent of the value of each contract to Zampino's party, Union Montreal, as well as an initial donation — sort of like an entry fee to participate in the scheme — ranging from $50,000 to $200,000.

Since he began testifying in his own defence last Thursday, Zampino has repeatedly denied any involvement in any such scheme, despite having numerous friends and business acquaintances who have either been found guilty of or admitted to wrongdoing.

He maintains he was unaware of any such scheme in Montreal until he first heard about when it came up during testimony at the Charbonneau commission into municipal corruption in 2013.

Four other people are also facing charges: former director of public works for the city, Robert Marcil, and the heads of three engineering firms, Kazimierz Olechnowicz, Bernard Poulin and Normand Brousseau.

Zampino's testimony in his own defence wrapped up Monday.

On Tuesday, he'll face questions from lawyers for his co-defendants before being cross-examined by the Crown.