Tony Accurso's home among UPAC raid targets - Action News
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Montreal

Tony Accurso's home among UPAC raid targets

Investigators with the province's anti-corruption unit raided the homes of several former city administrators and ex-construction magnate Tony Accurso this morning.

90 UPAC officers carry out multiple search warrants in Quebec

Tony Accurso is facing criminal charges in connection with an alleged multi-million dollar tax fraud. (Canadian Press)

Investigators with the province's anti-corruption unit (UPAC) searched the homes of former city administrators and ex-construction magnate Tony Accursoduring raids involving90 police officers and several search warrants.

TheSaint-Lonard home of Frank Zampino, the former head of Montreal's executive committee, was among the locations searched as was the home ofRobertAbdallah, the city's former director general, and Accurso, the former head ofSimard-Beaudry Construction.

Tony Accurso's home in Deux Montagnes was one of the target of several search warrants executed by the province's anti-corruption unit. (Radio-Canada)

UPAC would not confirm the exact locations of where the search warrants were executed.

Accurso, whose companieshave beenunder the gunatQuebec's corruption inquiry, quit the construction industry in 2012 after he was charged in connection with a multimillion-dollar tax-evasion conspiracy. Those charges have not been proven in court.

Accurso's name has also come up several times in testimony before the Charbonneau commission and he is currently fighting a subpoena compelling him to testify at the inquiry because of the ongoing criminal proceedings.

He took that fight all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada and ajudgment is expected to be rendered tomorrow.

Zampino, who testified before thecommission in 2013, was second-in-command at city hall behind former mayor Grald Tremblay, before he quit politics in 2008.

He was arrested in 2012 and charged with fraud, conspiracy and breach of trust.

Quebec provincial police search the Saint-Lonard home of Frank Zampino on Wednesday. (CBC)
Investigators allege he was themastermind behind a scheme to favour one construction company in the awarding of a $300-million municipal contract.

Police believeZampinofixed the bidding process to favour Construction Frank Catania & Associates Inc. for the Faubourg Contrecoeur housing development project.

Zampinohas denied those allegations and none of the charges hasbeen proven in court.

Abdallah's home also targeted

Earlier on Wednesday, police searched the Pierrefonds home ofRobertAbdallah, Montreal'sformer director general.

No one was at the housewhen police arrived on the property, butAbdallah'sson, Carl, stopped by later in the morning.

He said his parents are away on vacation, and his father asked him to check on the home after he heard about the search.

Frank Zampino appeared before the Charbonneau commission in 2013, where he denied having links to members of Montreal's organized crime community.

"Theyre just searching through for information.Theyre going to do their job, and everythings going to go well," he told reporters.

"Ihave absolutely no worries."

Abdallah, who was Montreal's director general from 2003 to 2006, has beenaccused of accepting money in a city contractkick-back scheme.

Former construction bossLino Zambitotestified at the Charbonneau commission in 2012 that Abdallah, when he was the top civil servant in the city, instructed him through a middleman to use pipes from a particular firm while working on a major sewer contract.

The materials were $300,000 more expensive but Zambito said he was assured by a city engineer acting as a middleman that he would be compensated and informed thatthat amountwould go to Abdallah as part of the deal.

Former Montreal director general Robert Abdallah speaks at a news conference in 2013, when he disputed allegations that he accepted money in a city contract kickback scheme. (CBC)

Members of the board of the Port of Montreal have said that they were pushed to appoint Abdallah by Harper's former communications director, Dimitri Soudas.Abdallah was not appointed in the end, andafter leaving city hall, he went on to work in the construction industry.

The allegations againstAdballah at the Charbonneau commission have not been proven in court and he has denied them in media interviews.