“The Norbourg scandal would not have taken place in 2022”, believes Yvon Laprade, journalist and author of the book The autopsy of the Norbourg scandalpublished in 2009.
Posted at 7:00 a.m.
This book served as a reference for the film norbourg which is being released this month in cinemas across Quebec to tell the story of this fraud estimated at more than 100 million having cheated more than 9,000 small savers.
The film sums up in two hours what the ex-president of Norbourg, Vincent Lacroix, and his accomplice Éric Asselin managed to do with the help of shenanigans and shenanigans.
“The film is realistic. I can’t say it’s fiction. It’s quite close to reality, ”says Yvon Laprade, who supported the director of the film as a consultant.
Although there will always be tricksters willing to bend the rules, the reality of the financial world is different from what it was in the early 2000s when Vincent Lacroix managed to embezzle money with the help of Eric Asselin.
“At the time, we were less equipped and less aware of many issues,” says Yvon Laprade.
The Quebec Securities Commission did not have the same scope of investigation as the Autorité des marchés financiers today. In 2022, I’m not sure Vincent Lacroix could have survived very long with a scheme like that.
Yvon Laprade, journalist and author of The autopsy of the Norbourg scandal
This scandal could have been avoided if there had been greater vigilance on the part of the authorities, thinks Yvon Laprade.
Lack of vigilance
“Investigations that were unsuccessful, the custodians of value who sent money without any control, the Caisse de dépôt which sold its Evolution funds to Lacroix without asking too many questions, etc., all of this is discussed. in the film, but the film could have insisted more on the lack of vigilance and checks at the time. The world of finance was a little more lax in its ways of regulating the markets. It lacked rigor. Everyone was a little nonchalant. »
If Yvon Laprade appreciates the film as a whole, he does not hesitate to be critical. “There are shortcuts, sure, but it’s still a story that holds together,” says the man who spent countless hours conducting interviews and digging into the case for writing. of his book.
“Vincent Lacroix survived thanks to an investigator [Éric Asselin] who went to the Norbourg camp. That’s the big chunk. The film shows it. We can see that it is thanks to Asselin. But Asselin’s personality is even stronger than that projected by the film,” he says.
“Asselin is portrayed as a profiteer who needs money and who works a lot for cash. He is more vindictive in fact than in the film. I’m not saying that the film makes the two characters more sympathetic, I would say that Asselin does not have many moral values. He’s more of an upstart. In the film, he sometimes feels a little more tormented, whereas according to what I was able to understand, see and document, he was more of a wiseguy. »
PHOTO PATRICK SANFAÇON, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Vincent Lacroix arrives at his halfway house after his release, January 27, 2011.
The face of the fraudster
To speak of a fraud of 130 million seems little today, launches Yvon Laprade. “What keeps us talking about it is that we put a face to a fraudster. We saw a little guy from Magog, a French-speaking Quebecer that we could know, a guy from Quebec who wanted to be a financial star, not an Earl Jones or a Bernie Madoff,” he said.
“Norbourg wanted to be a rising star. Many people had invested in Quebec, because the Evolution funds purchased by Norbourg belonged to the Caisse de depot. The victims were not looking for 20% returns. They were presented with a fait accompli. The imagination is strong on this. »
Éric Asselin was Vincent Lacroix’s right arm and left arm. He became the person who protected Lacroix from the investigations and was his protector in exchange for a lot of money, says Yvon Laprade.
“He was brilliant, Asselin. He knew the mechanics and avoided the pitfalls. He became his left arm when the AMF relaunched the CVMQ investigation and sent summonses to Lacroix and Asselin. It was then that Asselin realized that the noose was tightening and that he reported Lacroix to the RCMP to avoid being prosecuted. »
Éric Asselin is presented as a manipulator in the thriller which shows the failings of Lacroix with the outings to the dancers, at Parée, his delusions of grandeur (having a subsidiary in Switzerland), the many drunken evenings at the restaurant, the outflows, the gleaming head office downtown, the manipulation of numbers to prevent investigators from seeing the reality, and so on.
The film opens on Friday, April 22. Its theatrical release comes at a time when the Autorité des marchés financiers is increasing warnings to small investors against bandits, particularly in connection with cryptoassets. You may have heard one of the many AMF advertisements on the radio that says, “Do you have an interest in cryptos? Fraudsters too. »