Christophe José Folla, the co-founder of the important group of real estate brokerage agencies Sutton Quebec, will remain detained at least until Monday.
The 70-year-old man, well known in the real estate world, was arrested Wednesday by the Sûreté du Québec (SQ). He appeared Thursday by videoconference from a detention center in Mascouche.
Looking serious, dressed in a white sweater, he was formally accused at the Saint-Jérôme courthouse of having started arson and of having conspired with third parties to commit these crimes.
The charges are linked to a series of fires in commercial buildings that took place in recent years in Saint-Sauveur and Sainte-Thérèse in the Laurentians.
On Wednesday, police officers from the SQ’s major crimes investigation division also arrested his alleged accomplices Benjamin Amar and Alain-Marc Nahmias.
According to the denunciation document, one of these fires targeted a building which housed the offices of the competing agency ReMax and others targeted buildings belonging to the company of François Léger, founder of the real estate agency Royal LePage Humania, died in 2022.
The Crown prosecutor, Me Caroline Buist opposed the release of Mr. Folla. He will return to court on Monday and Tuesday to present his arguments with the aim of being released for the duration of the criminal proceedings.
None of the allegations have yet been proven in court. All three men, like all defendants, are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Sutton Quebec quickly distanced itself from Mr. Folla. Patricia Lemoine Smith, whose consulting firm represents Sutton Quebec and Julie Gaucher, the co-founder of this real estate brokerage agency, said that the man was removed from the articles of incorporation of Sutton Quebec on Wednesday and that he is therefore more administrator.
“There is no longer any link between Christophe Folla and Sutton,” she added in an email sent to Duty, while specifying that Sutton’s activities continue.
Mme Gaucher and Mr. Folla founded Sutton Québec together in 1995.