The day before his scheduled jail time, Tony Accurso is attempting a final appeal to the Supreme Court.
Posted at 7:43pm
Alice Girard-Bossé La Presse
Louis Samuel Perron The Press
Five days after the Quebec Court of Appeals denied him a third trial, the 70-year-old appealed to the Supreme Court.
On Friday, Mr Accurso will also ask for his release pending the Supreme Court decision.
The fallen entrepreneur was due to go to jail on Wednesday, four years after he was found guilty of taking part in one of the worst corruption cases in Quebec’s history.
Tony Accurso, the great boss of a Quebec construction empire, was at the heart of a vast system of collusion and corruption by municipal officials to secure public contracts for the city of Laval. From 1996 to 2010, his companies raked in millions of dollars thanks to this criminal scheme of former Laval Mayor Gilles Vaillancourt.
Tony Accurso was sentenced to four years in prison in July 2018 after being found guilty of numerous crimes including corruption, fraud and conspiracy after his second trial.
In a long 76-page decision expected for a year, the Court of Appeals dismissed the defense appeals last Thursday. Tony Accurso’s main complaint was the “unlawful” interference by the police investigation into the secrecy of the jury’s deliberations.
Meanwhile, the provincial highest court ruled that the four-year sentence was appropriate. The crimes committed by Tony Accurso “create cynicism and disillusionment with public institutions among citizens […] [et] feed citizen dissatisfaction with all elected officials and civil servants,” argued the Court of Appeal.