The city of Laval near Montreal is suing its former mayor and his associates for $12.8 million it claims it lost due to inflated public contracts. Former mayor Gilles Vaillancourt, other city officials and the construction firm Nepcon are named in the suit. They are among 37 people arrested by a special anti-corruption task force in 2013 for alleged involvement in a scheme of price-fixing, fraud and kickbacks and facing criminal charges.
This could be the first of many civil lawsuits. The province of Quebec passed a law in April allowing public institutions to try to recuperate money they may have lost in collusion schemes.
This came in the wake of a public commission of inquiry which revealed widespread collusion and corruption in Quebec involving the construction industry and the public works sector between 1997 and 2009.
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