The trial that was set to resume Monday for the former president of Montreal’s Executive Committee and several other men facing fraud and corruption charges is once again in jeopardy.

Frank Zampino, along with others including Bernard "Mr. Three Per Cent" Trepanier, is charged with fraud and corruption connected to the Faubourg Contrecoeur project.

After lengthy setbacks, the trial was set to start Monday, but the defence dropped a bombshell on the court, telling Judge Yvan Poulin they had learned some of their conversations with clients were wiretapped in an unrelated criminal case.

Conversations with lawyers are normally confidential and off-limits to police.

Poulin has given the prosecution until Tuesday to provide details on how and why these details were recorded.

“That is to be directed by the judge tomorrow if the procedure was done properly and if it’s important enough to order a sort-of mini-investigation on that,” said defence lawyer Pierre Morneau.

Defence lawyers said they might consider filing a motion for a stay of proceedings.

Zampino, Trepanier, and six others were arrested and charged in 2012 in connection with land the city of Montreal sold in 2007 to Construction Frank Catania. Valued at $31 million, it sold for $4.4 million.

The Societé d'habitation et de developpement de Montreal (SHDM) hired accounting firm KPMG to investigate the surprising deal. The firm concluded there were irregularities in the way the then-director general Martial Fillion conducted himself in the sale of the land.

KPMG said Fillion had facilitated payments by the construction firm without the required permission of the administrative council of the Societé.

The deal convinced then-Montreal mayor Gerald Tremblay to turn the SHDM into a municipal company that no longer operated at arms-length from the city government.

One of the accused, Daniel Gauthier, pleaded guilty during the first week of the trial, while a ninth accused, Fillion, has died.

Plagued by delays

Proceedings began on Feb. 8, 2016. Following months of delays, defence lawyers asked to have the case dismissed in December.

Poulin denied their request and said the trial will continue.