2023-08-07 04:00:00
One of the companies at the heart of the corruption schemes of the Gilles Vaillancourt era in Laval has just taken shelter from its creditors.
Nepcon, formerly headed by brothers Anthony and René “Ronnie” Mergl, owes more than $12.8 million to the city of Laval according to documents filed with the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy in recent days. A proposal could be made to liquidate this debt that the company has been dragging on for years.
It corresponds to the amount of the lawsuit brought by the City against the company, its former mayor and certain administrators. The amount corresponds to 20% of the approximately $64 million in engineering contracts won by Nepcon between 1997 and 2009.
The legal action began in 2015 under the administration of former mayor Marc Demers. It was then alleged that René Mergl had solicited the former general manager to obtain more contracts. He then allegedly became “directly involved in the system” by overseeing the preparation of convenience bids at the request of the winning contractors.
The company’s head office in Laval seemed deserted during the visit of the Journal’s representative last Friday. Photo Martin Alarie
He and his late brother Anthony reportedly personally handed over 2% of the contracts to Gilles Vaillancourt’s party fundraisers. The case dragged on in court for more than eight years.
Bribes for garbage?
That’s not all. Last year, our Bureau of Investigation revealed that the Mergls had paid money directly to ex-mayor Vaillancourt. In a dispute with Revenu Québec, the Mergls allege that they gave bribes totaling $1.4 million to the ex-mayor, for the management of garbage contracts and $72,000 to the former General Manager Gaétan Turbide for snow removal contracts.
They would also have given $195,000 to Marc Gendron and Roger Desbois, the mayor’s two fundraisers, for excavation contracts.
They made these revelations to avoid paying $1.2 million claimed by Revenu Québec in connection with a false invoicing scheme. While they acknowledge having received the money, they say it was spent to bribe municipal leaders, mainly in Laval.
Came back to Quebec
Revenu Québec questioned the credibility of the Mergls because they “admit to have developed the false invoicing scheme for the purpose of generating undeclared sums of money.”
Turbide and ex-mayor Vaillancourt denied receiving the money for the garbage and snow removal contracts.
In addition to the $12 million to Ville de Laval, the only other creditor to whom Nepcon owes money is Revenu Québec for the sum of $200,000.
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