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construction magnate tony accurso says he is being extorted at halfway house
"i tried to manage (the extortion attempts) myself and i never reported it to the administration at the halfway house," he tells parole hearing.
aug 22 2024
4 minute read
construction entrepreneur tony accurso is seen at a courthouse in 2018.
dave sidaway
/
montreal gazette files
construction magnate antonio (tony) accurso says he is being shaken down at a halfway house while he continues to serve the sentence he received in the laval municipal corruption case.
at the start of a hearing before the parole board of canada on thursday, accurso’s parole officer informed the board that she had new information to add before it could proceed.
accurso, 72, was granted both day and full parole and was released on march 12. he was splitting his time between living at home and at a halfway house before he was returned behind bars months ago for a few weeks and then was allowed to resume day parole.
thursday’s hearing was to determine whether accurso should be allowed to continue day parole. parole board member howard bruce said he will deliberate on the matter and deliver his decision soon, possibly on friday.
“mr. accurso told me he was a victim of extortion by a resident (at the halfway house),” the parole officer, marie veilleux, said of a meeting she had with accurso at his home in deux montagnes last week. “at the base of it, he said he didn’t share this before because he felt he could manage the situation on his own, but he also said it was tiring and that it wasn’t stopping.”
accurso then confirmed what his parole officer said.
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“all of the extortion attempts made against me, i tried to manage them myself and i never reported it to the administration at the halfway house,” accurso said.
accurso was allowed out on day parole on march 12.
“twenty-eight days later there was an event,” vielleux said in reference to shots being fired at a residence in deux montagnes owned by accurso. “he contacted his parole officer to say there had been an event at his residence and that police were present. (correctional service canada) learned there was an accomplice (in the laval corruption case), his cousin (giuseppe molluso, now 81) who lived on the land of his property.
“the board was not aware that his cousin lived on the land.”
since 2022, police in deux montagnes and laval have investigated several incidents where property owned by accurso or his relatives were either fired upon or the target of arson. for example, during october 2022, someone set fire to a home in deux-montagnes reportedly rented by accurso’s daughter and her husband. the fire destroyed the house.
last year, la presse reported that the sûreté du québec was investigating a man serving a life sentence inside a federal penitentiary as a suspect in attempts to extort $100,000 from accurso.
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on july 5, 2018, accurso was sentenced to a four-year prison term for his role in a rigged bidding scheme that involved former laval mayor gilles vaillancourt, other city officials and dozens of contractors seeking construction contracts from the municipality. he appealed the sentence and was ordered to begin serving it after all of his options for an appeal failed.
in september 2017, molluso, the former head of the accurso-owned construction companies simard beaudry and louisbourg construction, pleaded guilty to charges filed against him in project honorer and was sentenced to a prison term of two years less one day that he served in the community.
the scheme that accurso and molluso were a part of was actually run by former laval mayor gilles vaillancourt and two of his highest officials. it ran from 1996 to 2010 and the majority of construction contracts issued by the city of laval were rigged — awarded before they were put to tender. about 20 construction companies in all colluded in the scheme, which was masterminded by vaillancourt.
companies would kick back two per cent of the value of the contracts to vaillancourt. accurso was one of 37 people charged in 2013 in the upac investigation project honorer. at least 28 of the men who were charged were convicted.
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veilleux said accurso’s day parole was suspended because he violated one of the conditions of his release — that he not associate or contact with people involved in criminal activity.
“his cousin has a criminal record, so for us it is considered a breach of his condition,” veilleux said, adding a decision was made to allow accurso to return to being on day parole.
for the purposes of thursday’s meeting, accurso’s case-management team recommended that he be allowed to continue being on day parole.
“everything is going well. he respects his conditions, he is transparent with his case-management team, he provides us with all the information on his finances. for us, all of his conditions are respected.”
she added that accurso even fired his gardener because it turned out he had a criminal record.
the parole board then agreed to hear accurso’s release plan in a closed-door hearing to keep the details from becoming public. two reporters covering the parole hearing were not allowed to follow that part of the hearing.
when the closed-door portion of the hearing came to an end, accurso told the board he has been dealing with partially blocked arteries. he also said molluso has since moved from his property.
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“mr. molluso is not a factor. he has moved. he is not there,” accurso said, adding he simply wants to return to the way things were when he started day parole.
he also said the gardener’s criminal record involved an impaired driving conviction where “serious damage” was caused.
accurso’s lawyer, pierre tabah, asked the parole board to consider how accurso respected his bail conditions, including that he not communicate with molluso, throughout the many years while the corruption case was pending.
“mr. accurso never broke his conditions. he respected them to the letter for 12 years,” tabah said. “they have used this excuse (what happened at molluso’s residence) to look at his case again. he was brought to (a provincial jail) for three weeks. pardon the word, but it was hell. he was in a jail in st-jérôme.
“it took a month to deal with the situation (before he was released on day parole again with new conditions).”
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