Disgraced financier Vincent Lacroix is delaying his efforts to halt his upcoming trial on charges related to one of Quebec's biggest financial scandals.
Lacroix had wanted the charges thrown out on the grounds that he can't get a fair trial in Quebec following four years of intense media coverage.
He's now decided to wait until after jury selection, which is scheduled to begin at the Montreal courthouse on Monday.
Lacroix has already served time on securities charges in the Norbourg scandal that saw 9,200 investors lost $115 million.
He had lost a bid earlier this week to have the upcoming criminal trial halted on the grounds that he couldn't be tried twice for the same crimes.
Securities fraud
In December of 2007, Lacroix was convicted and sentenced to 12 years in jail for 51 violations of securities law as head of the now-defunct Norbourg group of companies. Judges subsequently reduced the sentence to eight years, then to five, and Lacroix has since been freed from prison.
In June of last year, the RCMP also charged Lacroix and six other men with criminal counts including forgery, fraud and money laundering. Police allege Lacroix stole millions from clients between 2002 and 2005.
Investigators say that some of the money was used to purchase personal belongings and to make personal investments.
Co-conspirators
The six others, including a federal bureaucrat, face a total of 922 charges as Lacroix's alleged co-conspirators.
Four of the men have close ties to Norbourg including bookkeeper Jean Cholette and company auditor Remi Deschambault. The six are accused of fraud for allegedly helping Lacroix falsify documents.
The bureaucrat, Jean Renaud, was a federal finance employee who was on an unpaid leave of absence until he was fired when the charges were laid last June.
