Nearly 15 years after conspiring to defraud the City of Montreal by embezzling nearly $5 million, former computer consultant Benoit Bissonnette finally went to prison in handcuffs on Wednesday.
Posted at 4:15 p.m.
The 59-year-old man was sentenced to 30 months behind bars at the Montreal courthouse after pleading guilty in November 2021 to a charge of conspiracy to commit fraud.
The 30-month sentence was a joint suggestion by prosecution and defense attorneys.
In his decision, Judge Mario Longpré indicated that he “would have imposed a sentence much more severe than that suggested by the parties, […] taking into account the high moral culpability of the accused and the aggravating factors”.
Bissonnette’s accomplice, city official Gilles Parent, was sentenced to six years in prison for fraud in the case, after pleading guilty in 2012. He was released on conditions in 2015.
A lenient sentence?
During sentencing submissions, the prosecution acknowledged that the joint suggestion of 30 months might seem lenient, but it argued in particular that Benoit Bissonnette had been ordered, in civil court, to repay more than $2.4 million, together with his spouse Bei Ye and with Gilles Parent.
However, the civil judgment has been appealed, no reimbursement has yet been made, and Bissonnette, who earns her living by doing renovations, still lives in her house with her partner.
“The accused argues that he is completely ruined and that his residence is the subject of various seizures”, underlines the decision of Judge Longpré.
“Judicial harassment”
This was the third trial for Bissonnette since his arrest in 2009 by the Hammer squad, which has since been integrated into the Permanent Anti-Corruption Unit (UPAC).
“Holding three jury trials for the same case resulted in significant costs to society,” the judge noted.
But for a psychologist who met Bissonnette in 2021, these procedures are proof of “judicial harassment” which caused the accused to have post-traumatic stress disorder.
Defendant ‘is subject to state persecution over an extended period of time which takes the form of emotional abuse,’ according to psychology doctor Randolph Stephenson, who delivered an assessment report when Bissonnette made his third request in stay of proceedings.
But the Court “gives very little credibility to this testimony as well as very little probative value to its evaluation”, recalled Judge Longpré.
Nominees and Illegal Commissions
Benoit Bissonnette’s crime dates back to 2006 and spanned two years.
He admitted that he had, at the time, entered into an agreement with Gilles Parent aimed at defrauding the City. The duo had created a company, FORTÉ, using a nominee.
FORTÉ received $1 million in illegal commissions paid by private companies that provided computer services to the City of Montreal, according to a summary of the facts filed in court last fall.
The company owned by the two fraudsters also managed to appropriate $3.5 million in public funds, which it had transacted through Hong Kong, by fooling the City thanks to “pre-invoicing” for non-existent services and to the creation of false individuals.
FORTÉ also pocketed $750,000 thanks to a scheme allowing it to make its employees work for the City by charging professional fees, the summary states.
In 2015, Benoit Bissonnette was acquitted by a jury after a first trial, but the Court of Appeal overturned this acquittal and ordered a new trial because the jury had not received the appropriate instructions before its deliberations.
In 2020, a second jury trial was aborted because a Crown prosecutor referred during the interrogation of a witness to a document of incorporation of a company in Hong Kong, when this one had been ruled inadmissible in evidence.
With Vincent Larouche, The Press