One of the major witnesses at the Charbonneau Commission has been sentenced to two years less a day to be served in the community.
Lino Zambito pleaded guilty to corruption after being charged with trying to influence the awarding of municipal contracts in Boisbriand.
He was also charged with funding the election campaign of the previous mayor of Boisbriand, Sylvie St-Jean, who has pleaded guilty for participating in the plan to defraud citizens.
As part of his sentence, Zambito must complete 240 hours of community service and will have to regularly report to a probation officer for three years.
Judges hand down this type of sentence if the offender is not considered a danger to the community, and violators will be brought back before a judge for re-sentencing.
The mayor of Boisbriand, Robert Poirier, and Roche engineer France Michaud have also pleaded guilty to their roles in the corruption scheme.
Zambito, the former entrepreneur behind the now defunct Infrabec construction company, is best known for exposing corruption during at the Charbonneau Commission.
In his lengthy testimony before the inquiry, Zambito explained how he agreed to participate in the Mafia-run cartel that his firm began to win construction contracts in Boisbriand, Laval, and Montreal.
Zambito said the rules were made clear to him by a city engineer, passing on a message that other companies were upset with his low bid for a project.
At the inquiry Zambito explained how companies co-operated to fix their prices for contracts, taking advantage of a provincial law passed in 2002 that virtually guaranteed the lowest bidder would win municipal contracts.
But those prices were inflated and kickbacks went to many people, including politicians, political parties, and the Mafia was guaranteed a 2.5 percent share of all construction contracts.
Zambito left the construction industry when the corruption scandal broke, and became co-owner in a pizzeria.
He filed for bankruptcy protection in 2013.
