The head of a bankrupt Montreal security firm says he was just trying to help “a friend” when he gave former Quebec family minister Tony Tomassi a company credit card for personal use.
Luigi Coretti, in an interview with TVA news, said there were no other motives in supplying the Petro Canada card paid by his BCIA firm to Tomassi, who was fired from the cabinet May 6 after the gift was disclosed.
“For me, I don’t know Tony Tomassi as family minister. For me, I know Tony Tomassi as a friend,” he told a reporter.
“We issued a credit card, hey, it was to help him. This guy is a friend more than anything else.”
Coretti also said Tomassi did not make any major purchases using the card, but did not specify how the card was used or how much was spent.
He made these and other comments as Surete du Quebec investigators were beginning to sift through documents and computerized data seized Wednesday after a raid on the firm’s Louvain St. headquarters and a warehouse on Belgarde St. in Laval. BCIA is the French acronym for the Canadian Bureau of Investigations.
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The police were acting on search warrants issued in connection with Operation Hammer, its crackdown on fraud and collusion among construction firms. The SQ will take several weeks to examine the material seized, SQ Sgt. Richard Gagne said.
Coretti said he was not concerned about the investigation or what police might uncover in their paper search.
“It’s fine and dandy that they carry out their probe. (Operation) Hammer can come, I couldn’t care less.”
In May, Montreal city auditor Jacques Bergeron revealed BCIA had been providing security for Montreal Police headquarters since 2006, under an unwritten agreement. Police chief Yvan Delorme, who has announced he’s quitting, had lunch with Coretti in 2005, before becoming chief and contracting the verbal deal, a La Presse inquiry showed.
Coretti also denied having used his political contacts to help overcome opposition to his requests for a permit to carry a restricted weapon.
The SQ in 2008 refused several requests, but in July that year he was granted a one-month renewable permit, after he reapplied, following a meeting with Public Security Minister Jacques Dupuis.
Coretti claimed he needed a handgun because he said he had trouble recruiting staff and was personally working in the firm’s armoured cars transporting cash and valuables. Dupuis also said he did not intervene with the SQ on Coretti’s behalf, though he had asked his then chief of staff, Jocelyn Turcotte, to speak with Coretti, who then called the SQ.
Saying he did not use his political contacts to get the permit, Coretti conceded the SQ “did everything so I would not get the permit.”
He also claimed unnamed persons working for unnamed major businesses and institutions worked against his firm and that he unfairly lost security contracts, which contributed to his firm’s collapse.
BCIA declared bankruptcy in May after failing to persuade creditors to accept a proposal to resolve its $14-million debt. Among investors owed money are the Quebec government, Movement Desjardins and about 1,000 current and former company employees, who had invested almost $4 million in the firm.
iblock@thegazette.canwest.com
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