The city of Laval is gearing up for a court battle to get money back from its former mayor and from construction companies.
Mayor Marc Demers said the city's lawyers are preparing a civil suit to reclaim millions of dollars from companies that allegedly colluded with former Mayor Gilles Vaillancourt.
"The main purpose is to make sure that everybody understand that this will not be available in Laval any more," said Demers.
Vaillancourt and several other men are accused of gangsterism and running a fraud and breach of trust scheme that involved at least 36 people, including former construction magnate Tony Accurso.
Demers said a lawyer is auditing expenditures that took place during the Vaillancourt regime, and tying it in with what has been said by witnesses at the Charbonneau Commission into corruption.
He said the witnesses have provided enough evidence of theft that the city of Laval does not have to wait for the results of the criminal trials to prove the guilt of Vaillancourt and others accused of fraud.
"Citizens have nothing to fear concerning collusion and corruption. We won't accept it," said Demers.
"The other thing is we firmly believe that we can get some money back."
Lino Zambito, a former construction company owner, told the corruption inquiry that Vaillancourt took a 2.5 percent cut of all construction contracts handed out in Laval during his two decades as mayor.
Police said that before Vaillancourt was charged in 2013 they seized $483,000.
The next proceedings in the mass trial will take place in April 2015.
Vaillancourt tried to grab boxes
Meanwhile Demers revealed that soon after the 2013 election Vaillancourt returned to city hall in an attempt to pick up what was described as "a few things.
That turned out to be 208 boxes of documents that had been stored in the city hall furnace room.
Vaillancourt was not allowed to leave with the boxes, and Demers said he would not disclose what they contained, but that city lawyers had verified the items therein were the legal property of Laval.
