May.26, 2010

MONTREAL – Arrest warrants have been issued for three European residents sought in connection with a seven-raid sweep conducted Wednesday morning in and around the Montreal region, involving about 130 investigators and officers from the Sûreté du Québec and the RCMP.

SQ officials said international elements of the crackdown on an alleged money-laundering ring involve links with various shell companies operated in Switzerland and Belgium.

The raids were designed to crack open what lnsp. Denis Morin, head of the SQ’s financial-integrity-investigation squad, described as a combination money-laundering and tax-evasion scheme centered on Société Financière Speedo (1993) Inc. of Montreal.

Speedo’s office, in a nondescript three-storey brick building fronting on Rosemont Blvd., on the northwest corner of the intersection with De Bordeaux St., was one of the targets.

It is located in a quiet, primarily residential sector in the city’s east end; a phalanx of investigators who descended on it around 7 a.m. were still there at noon.

Four Montreal-area individuals have already been arrested, most notably Ronald Chicoine, 57, of Montreal, owner of Speedo and described by Morin as the ringleader of the operation – which is alleged to have siphoned $12 million of taxes which should have been paid to Quebec and federal tax authorities between 1996 and last year.

Chicoine had earlier been freed with conditions in connection with a series of criminal charges in 2008 over an alleged money-laundering scheme involving construction-industry billings, Morin said.

Wednesday’s raids were accompanied by judicial seizure orders which froze $48 million of assets – $38 million of that under Speedo’s name, said Miron.

The legal freeze is considered among the largest seizure orders of its type in Canadian history, said Chief Insp. François Roux of the SQ.

Some of the working capital for the arrangement was furnished by “various cells of organized crime,” Roux said.

When asked, he refused to specify whether investors in the ring are believed to include motorcycle gangs and/or the Mafia.

Régis Dini , 60, and Alain Vayda, 67, two of the Europeans being sought, are Swiss residents.

The third man still at large, Jacques Stalmans, 74, is a resident of Belgium, the SQ added.

In addition to Chicoine, the three others already arrested locally:

• Serge Perrier, 50, of St. Eustache, a chartered accountant by training who handled the accounting at Speedo and had also been arrested in 2008, and like Chicoine released under conditions, Morin said;

• André Ronald Comeau, 58, a resident of Ste-Marguerite-du-Lac-Masson, trained as a lawyer and disbarred by the Quebec Bar; and

• Johanne Leroux, 49, also from Ste-Marguerite-du-Lac-Masson.

Locations raided in the Montreal region include the offices of a lawyer and two notaries, none of which were named by police.

Two private residences and one accounting office were also raided.

Involved in the investigation are Revenue Quebec, the RCMP, and authorities from Switzerland and Belgium.

The Montreal men face charges of fraud, fabrication and use of forged documents, money-laundering, conspiracy, gangsterism and breach of promise.

Leroux is being charged separately, with possession and unlawful storage of a firearm.