Deposit and investment fund | The ex-boss of Otéra says he was “thrown under the bus”

A painful trial for the Caisse de depot et placement du Québec has just begun in Montreal. The former boss of the Otéra Capital mortgage subsidiary testifies against the woolen socks of Quebecers, whom he is suing for 6.9 million. He says he was “thrown under the bus” after investigative reporting on his conflicts of interest.

On the first day of his trial against the Caisse for “wrongful dismissal”, Alfonso Graceffa described in court the incessant calls from his boss, the CEO of the real estate subsidiary Ivanhoé Cambridge, Daniel Fournier, on February 7, 2019. “He repeated: “ You have to do something… Maybe you should step aside”. »

In February 2019, reports from the Montreal Journal revealed in particular that a subsidiary of Otéra, the Financial Corporation MCAP, had granted more than 9 million dollars in loans to personal real estate companies of the CEO. Otéra had also lent 44 million to the company of a business partner of Graceffa, Thomas Marcantonio.

“They told me: ‘If you don’t leave, we’re going to suspend you,'” Graceffa told the court. There was pressure from above, there was a lot of heat from the media…”

Two days after the first revelations in the media, the Caisse finally announced that Graceffa had “offered to withdraw from all his functions in the real estate subsidiaries of the Caisse” during the independent investigation, entrusted to lawyer Stéphane Eljarrat, at Osler .

Graceffa recounts how he was cooked in the offices of the firm, in the company of another lawyer at Osler, Frédéric Plamondon, on March 25, 2019.

“It was a strange encounter,” he said. They asked me about organized crime… I don’t know, maybe because I’m Italian… They showed me pictures and documents about the Mafia…”

Then in May 2019, Caisse CEO Michael Sabia invited the media to a press conference. He presented a “summary” of the conclusions of his independent investigation, mentioning that it had cost 5 million. Without naming anyone, the Caisse then deplored “serious and unacceptable shortcomings” at Otéra and announced that four people had left the organization.

The Caisse deplored in particular transactions “carried out through a person who has, or had, direct and/or indirect links with known actors in the organized crime community”. She also mentioned that an individual with a criminal past had come to hand over $15,000 in cash to one of the officers concerned in her office.

The Fund then issued another press release explaining that three people, including Graceffa, had “no longer any employment relationship with the company”. In short, the ex-CEO would not return to take office.

Some interests revealed… others not

In June 2019, Graceffa filed his lawsuit for “wrongful dismissal”. In his request, he claims to have declared the majority of his interests in commercial buildings. However, he acknowledges that he was the one who received $15,000 in cash at the Otéra offices. He also admits that he “forgot” to declare his interest in Construction Sainte-Gabrielle, a company originally owned by his brother.

In his testimony, Graceffa insisted on the multiple positive evaluations that the Fund had made in his favor, before the fateful winter of 2019.

For his part, the Caisse’s lawyer, Mason Poplaw, assures us that the actions discovered during the internal investigation are serious, “even taken in isolation”. “These serious criticisms go to the heart of his duties, the highest function in this organization,” he pleads.

In January 2020, the Caisse filed its defense against its former confidant. She describes Graceffa as a leader “with a disordered ethical compass”.

His evidence and the transcription of close interrogations allow us to learn that Graceffa was himself in the private real estate loan, while directing Otéra. While he was in office, he even granted a total of 11 million, through his broker partner Thomas Marcantonio.

“State of Tolerance”

Three years after the filing of the Caisse’s defense and these out-of-court interrogations, Graceffa’s lawyer, Marie-France Tozzi, intends “to show that there was a situation of tolerance at Otéra with regard to conflicts of ‘interests’.

In court, she mentions new sections of the Montreal Journal published in 2022. They reported other conflicts of interest of the first vice-president and chief investment officer of Otéra Paul Chin, still employed.

“Paul is not just anyone, testified Graceffa. He’s the chief investment officer! »

In his objections, the Caisse’s lawyer rejected any comparison between the two cases because Paul Chin was not as high up in the hierarchy.

The full report on the 2019 internal investigation was never released. The Caisse gave journalists only a five-page summary during the press conference.