Barely eight months after heading to detention to serve his four-year penitentiary sentence, fallen entrepreneur Tony Accurso will be able to get out thanks to a rather rare procedure, even if he still denies his involvement in the alleged crimes.
The 72-year-old man went to the Parole Board of Canada this morning to undergo an expedited review.
This is a simplified procedure provided for by the Corrections and Conditional Release Act. This is intended to facilitate the parole of non-violent criminals serving time in custody for the first time. His request was granted, even though he still denies the crimes for which he was convicted.
“He maintains that he was not aware of the collusion system in place,” summarized the parole officer responsible for the inmate’s case. He will thus be able to release a sixth of his sentence, within a few days, for semi-freedom.
This provision in the law was repealed by Stephen Harper’s Conservatives in 2011. But since the crimes for which Tony Accurso was convicted date back before that date, he is one of the few to still be eligible.
The latter has been serving a prison sentence since last summer, after the Supreme Court refused to hear his final appeal. This put an end to the legal saga lasting more than 10 years.
He had thus had to become a prisoner, in order to serve the four-year sentence handed down after he was found guilty in connection with a major corruption scandal.
The fallen construction magnate had been involved in a system of collusion established by the former mayor of Laval Gilles Vaillancourt, between 1996 and 2010.
Violence in prison
Particularly, Tony Accurso asked that his exit plan be kept secret. This portion of the hearing was held in camera.
Remember that over the past year and a half, the Accurso clan has been the target of attacks on numerous occasions.
First, his house and that of his son were riddled with bullets in Deux-Montagnes.
Photo QMI Agency, Thierry Laforce
Then, business buildings belonging to his daughter and her partner were also targets of arson.
He also confided during the hearing that he had been the victim of violence at the start of his detention.
“That wasn’t fun. There are threats that have been made, the world presents itself with knives or picks. Drugs are omnipresent, it’s a very threatening atmosphere,” he explained.
But it was exceptionally possible to change detention centers, very quickly, he explained.
“I appreciate that the world has understood that I cannot fit into this more difficult category of inmates,” he added.
And once at the federal detention center, he was then able to benefit from protection from two “senior” detainees.
“They followed me and protected me, which I appreciated. I was not disgusted by others,” he said.
Real estate projects
The rest of his detention went well, even if “eight months is a very long time,” he complained.
To prevent him from reoffending upon his release, it was suggested that he could not be self-employed and also find himself in a management position in a company.
He assured that his intention was to remain retired, except to sell some land he owns and possibly develop it with the help of his sons.
He will thus be able to get involved in real estate projects.
Furthermore, in the fall of 2020, Accurso admitted its participation in a system of false invoices produced by shell companies.
He was then ordered to personally pay nearly $2 million to the governments. He was then granted a reprieve to pay the approximately $300,000 he owed to the federal government.
-With Jonathan Tremblay