The seizure of Christian Bordeleau’s assets ordered by the Superior Court of Quebec was the subject of a leak of information by a police officer, which would have allowed Mr. Bordeleau to hide part of it. The incident triggered an internal criminal investigation by the Public Security Service of the MRC des Collines-de-l’Outaouais, we learned The Press.
The police officer targeted by this criminal investigation which lasted “several weeks”, Cristel Lanthier, has since been exonerated, but she was the subject of disciplinary measures, show court documents to which The Press had access. The director of the MRC des Collines-de-l’Outaouais police service, Martial Malette, did not consider it necessary to disclose the conclusions of this investigation to the Quebec Ministry of Public Security, according to a court document.
The MRC des Collines-de-l’Outaouais refused to comment since the case is being taken to court.
This police officer and the MRC Public Security Service are the subject of a $1 million lawsuit brought by two ex-business partners of Christian Bordeleau. They allege that the police officer committed “gross misconduct” by revealing to Christian Bordeleau by text message that he would be seized the next morning.
This leak would have allowed him to “delete all his call history or text messages from his phone prior to the search of March 20, 2023 as well as to camouflage certain elements of evidence”, allege the prosecutors.
His ex-partners, Nikolaï Ray and Joël Lavoie, obtained a series of court orders in March 2023 allowing the seizure of all the bank accounts, computer devices and real estate assets of Mr. Bordeleau, whom they suspect of fraud. 1.7 million at their expense.
PHOTO OLIVIER JEAN, THE PRESS
Eight businessmen claim to be victims to varying degrees of “fraudulent maneuvers” by Christian Bordeleau. Below, Joël Lavoie and Nikolaï Ray, from MREX, as well as Michel Labrie. At the top, Renaud Gouin-Labrosse, Alexandre Numainville, Denis Leclerc, Claude Hamel and Mathieu Leclerc.
Mr. Bordeleau vigorously contests the validity of the seizure, which he said was ordered “on the basis of affidavits [déclarations sous serment] lies.” “I don’t know the policewoman, she is innocent in this situation,” he said.
The day before the seizure was executed, the bailiffs met Lieutenant Cristel Lanthier at the MRC des Collines-de-l’Outaouais police station to coordinate the operation, court documents indicate.
According to the affidavit made by the coordinating bailiff Yvan Martimbault, it was the computer technician who found “in the text messages from [Christian Bordeleau] a message sent by the policewoman” the day before the operation, announcing that he was going to be seized. The bailiff claims that he never gave the police officer Mr. Bordeleau’s telephone number. “The plaintiffs really question whether this was gross negligence on the part of Lanthier or whether she consciously and voluntarily caused the ‘search’ to fail,” they write in their lawsuit.
In a court document consulted by The Presspolicewoman Lanthier swears to have no link with Christian Bordeleau and assures that the leak was not deliberate.
The case should be heard by the court in June, but already, Judge Judith Harvie has declared that “there is reason to conclude that there is a real possibility of destruction of evidence”, in a judgment renewing the orders of seizure targeting Christian Bordeleau.
“The plaintiffs like to say that I destroyed documents, but we have, in over a year [de procédures judiciaires]never seen proof of this,” says Mr. Bordeleau.
Allegations of identity and address theft
In another court document, Christian Bordeleau’s ex-partners allege that the latter usurped the identity of another Christian Bordeleau who lives in Ontario when he registered one of his companies.
The registration declaration of this company, obtained by The Press with the Quebec Enterprise Registrar, shows that Mr. Bordeleau actually declared that he was domiciled at an address in Stittsville, Ontario, in September 2022.
When the bailiff went there, in April 2023, the man who answered them was indeed called Christian Bordeleau, but this namesake looked nothing like the Christian Bordeleau targeted by the seizures. He said he had no business and did not have the same date of birth as him, court documents indicate.
Mr. Bordeleau attributes this confusion to “a simple error by the notary’s office” who had another client named Christian Bordeleau among his clientele.
As part of the seizure, the bailiffs also knocked on the door of a Gatineau accountant, Richard Beaulieu, whose office was used – against his will – by Christian Bordeleau as a commercial correspondence address.
This accountant says he sent emails to Christian Bordeleau to “firmly demand” that he stop using his address. “I ended up losing my patience. I made the changes myself [au Registraire des entreprises] “, said Mr. Beaulieu in an interview with The Press.
“I’m not a hiding place!” His way of doing things did not pass the test. »
Read our report “Fight against corruption: the fall of a leading figure”