Bel-Habitat victims are growing impatient with the lack of progress in the investigation into the promoter’s questionable bankruptcy, which left 118 families waiting for their homes in June. But Laval police say they must first let the trustee do his own job.
For their part, the stripped consumers say they have the unpleasant impression that the investigators threw in the towel. Some of them fear that the authorities have already concluded that the Bel-Habitat saga does not hide any fraud.
“I contacted the police at the end of July to lodge my complaint and explain what had happened,” says Melanie Greer, in an email to Press. After talking for about an hour, the detective tells me that it didn’t appear to be fraud, but rather bankruptcy. ”
She asked him if the police were going to go through Luc Perrier’s bank accounts.
[La détective] replied that she had nothing to allow her to further investigate.
Melanie Greer
Other victims of Bel-Habitat who had houses built in Laval say they have had the same experience.
“The detective mentioned that there was nothing to suggest that it could be fraud and that they could not open a criminal investigation,” says one of these frustrated buyers, who wants to keep the anonymity because he believes that the disclosure of his name could harm his professional life. “So she confessed to me that there was no investigation as such, but rather that they were collecting information only. ”
40 people met
Contacted by Press, the Laval police ensure that they have indeed assigned detectives to the Bel-Habitat file. “The file is not at all closed, we are not saying that there is no fraud,” said spokesperson Geneviève Major.
As a major police force in a city of over 250,000 people, her organization has the expertise to conduct economic investigations, she said. “We met nearly 40 people. ”
She specifies, however, that the police allow the syndic’s investigation to advance before going any further. “We are not authorized to say whether or not there is an appearance of fraud,” said Geneviève Major. We are really waiting to hear from Raymond Chabot to know if we are facing a fraudulent scheme, or if we are dealing with a bad manager. ”
Payments required in cash
The consumer who wants to remain anonymous says he explained to the police how Luc Perrier had demanded in March a payment of $ 10,000 in banknotes for an expansion he had requested on the house ordered.
“I wanted to write him a check. He said to me: “No, no, I want cash,” ”he said.
Luc Perrier then signed an annex to his residential guarantee contract, which Press has obtained. The document indicates that “the contractor assumes the costs [dus aux] construction delays ”, a false assertion, assures the stripped consumer. He lost more than $ 100,000 in the bankruptcy of Bel-Habitat, without ever seeing the construction of his house begin.
The trustee Jean Gagnon says he did not get his hands on cash belonging to Bel-Habitat, but he confirms having collected “several comments” wanting that Luc Perrier received cash funds.
Interrogations
The trustee is to question Luc Perrier in the coming days. He will also question Dean Martin, a “friend” of the developer whose company, Itekt Canada, borrowed $ 800,000 from Bel-Habitat in 2017. She still owes the company $ 567,000, according to Raymond Chabot’s preliminary report. .
Dean Martin assures that his company is unable to reimburse this sum, as reported Press.
READ “The trustee must question a ‘friend’ of Luc Perrier who owes $ 567,000”
The trustee must in particular determine whether the bankruptcy of Bel-Habitat could hide a fraud. If he finds anything suspicious, he must report it not only to the police, but also to the Superintendent of Bankruptcy, who will use this information for his own investigation.
At a meeting of creditors at the end of July, the partner Jean Gagnon, of Raymond Chabot, suggested that the fall of Bel-Habitat seemed doubtful.
“When you take a consumer’s deposit to pay for another consumer’s construction, it can be compared to a Ponzi scheme,” he said.
In such a fraudulent system, the money of the last arrivals is used to reimburse the first investors. When the person at the head of the system can no longer convince newcomers to entrust him with funds, everything falls apart.
Bel-Habitat collected millions of dollars in down payments from consumers who had to buy their homes. His clients trusted him with sums of up to $ 777,000 before going bankrupt.
Reached by phone, Luc Perrier hung up before hearing questions from Press and did not call back despite a message left on his voicemail.