City of Winnipeg should get ‘immediate access’ to Caspian documents seized in raid: judge

A Manitoba judge says the City of Winnipeg should get “immediate access” to documents RCMP seized in a raid of a local construction company.

In an 84-page decision handed down Friday afternoon, Manitoba Justice Glenn Joyal said there’s no reason the city should not have access to documents relating to Caspian Construction, currently in the hands of Manitoba RCMP.

“The city ought to be given immediate access to any financial, accounting or banking documentation seized by the RCMP from the defendants and they should be similarly given permission to copy what it considers necessary,” said Joyal.

Read the decision here:

The City of Winnipeg launched a lawsuit earlier this year against Caspian Construction and numerous others, alleging massive fraud and large kickbacks during the building of the Police Headquarters project.

The city alleged the contractors behind the venture, Caspian Construction, along with dozens of others including a former city CAO, orchestrated a wide conspiracy to inflate prices and quotes and ultimately drive up the cost of the project.

None of the allegations by the city have been proven in court.

The new police headquarters budget was originally $135 million. In the end, it cost about $216 million and took three years longer than anticipated to build.

The city asked for the documents seized by the RCMP, but the defendants’ legal team moved to strike that motion, saying that a section of the criminal code would “pre-empt access to these documents seized by the RCMP,” according to Joyal’s written decision.

This is the second lawsuit launched against Caspian Construction by the city. The first, launched in 2018, alleged a breach of contractual duties that lead to a “number of defects and deficiencies” in the WPS Headquarters.

That lawsuit is still pending.