The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec neither defamed nor improperly dismissed Alfonso Graceffa, one of its former managers, according to a judgment just rendered by the Superior Court of Quebec. Mr. Graceffa sued his ex-employer for $8.4 million for these reasons. The Caisse de dépôt will, however, have to pay the $768,000 in bonuses which had not been paid to Mr. Graceffa.
The Caisse de dépôt finally won its case, against Alfonso Graceffa, who was “dismissed without notice” from his functions in the senior management of the subsidiaries Ivanhoé Cambridge and Otéra Capital, in May 2019.
Following a series of reports published by The Montreal Journal from February 2019, alleging several ethical breaches on the part of employees of the Fund, it launched an investigation, which led to the dismissal of three people, including Mr. Graceffa.
In his November 15 judgment, Superior Court Judge Andres Garin noted that Mr. Graceffa “seriously breached his obligations as an employee and senior manager by accepting $15,000 in cash, in his office at Otéra, of an individual with a criminal record for drug trafficking.”
He describes this “fault” as being “intolerable given the crucial importance of public confidence” in the Caisse de dépôt, in the probity and reliability of the Caisse which manages “the funds used for the pensions of millions of Quebecers.”
Furthermore, Mr. Graceffa “had failed to disclose his roles within three external companies” and “he had not fully disclosed the extent of his business relationship with a third party who was both a client and an Otéra service provider,” we can read.
“On their own, these breaches of the codes of ethics do not justify the ultimate sanction of dismissal without notice”, but they “aggravate the breakdown of the relationship of trust necessary to maintain Mr. Graceffa’s employment as a senior manager », notes Judge Garin.
Furthermore, even if “the public declarations” of the Fund “caused Mr. Graceffa to lose esteem,” the institution “did not commit a civil fault in making these declarations” and did not “do so.” not defamed,” the judgment states.
Despite this, the Caisse will still have to pay $768,000 in bonuses to Mr. Graceffa. Its subsidiary, Ivanhoé Cambridge, “could not unilaterally withhold a portion of Graceffa’s contractual remuneration due to him in April 2019 while he was on voluntary paid leave,” states the Court document.
Mr. Graceffa has not yet decided whether or not he will appeal the decision, his publicist told the Duty. “He has read the judgment and is considering the future,” he writes.