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OTTAWA — When disgraced ad man Jean Lafleur sold his home for $1.5-million in 2005, he gave the money to his lawyer, who shipped it to a financial institution in the tax haven of Liechtenstein.
Mr. Lafleur said he then invested a portion of the funds in China, Costa Rica and Belize, and used the rest to live for two years in Central America.
Now, filing for bankruptcy in Montreal this week, Mr. Lafleur says his investments have dried up and he has nothing left to give back to defrauded taxpayers.
In his court filing, Mr. Lafleur argued he cannot discharge the $1.5-million fine that followed his guilty plea last year to 28 charges of fraud, after paying off only $235,000 of the amount.
Jean Lafleur, former owner of Lafleur Communication and Marketing, ponders a question at the Gomery commission in this Feb. 28, 2005 file photo in Montreal. (Canadian Press)
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The document paints a picture of a man with almost nothing to his name, even though he personally made $9.4-million between 1993 and 2000 as the president of Lafleur Communication & Marketing.
Mr. Lafleur is on parole after serving seven months of a 42-month prison sentence.
The federal government now wants to challenge his bankruptcy filing in court in order to get further explanation of his allegedly dwindling fortunes.
“We want to hold a creditors meeting, where we will assert our rights,” said Ottawa's lawyer in the matter, Sylvain Lussier.
The government is also hoping to get Mr. Lafleur to finally give his version of events in order to bolster its ongoing lawsuits against other players in the federal sponsorship scandal, a number of whom dealt directly with Mr. Lafleur in the 1990s.
At the height of his involvement in the sponsorship program, Mr. Lafleur was a high-flying businessman, with top-level contacts in the Liberal government of then prime minister Jean Chrétien. Mr. Lafleur was regularly seen with Mr. Chrétien's chief of staff, Jean Pelletier, and director of operations, Jean Carle.
In addition, Mr. Lafleur had frequent contacts with the lead bureaucrat in the program, Chuck Guité, and a business relationship with a shadowy Liberal fundraiser, Jacques Corriveau.
Ottawa created the program to increase its visibility in Quebec after nearly losing the 1995 sovereignty referendum. However, advertising firms with good connections to the government reaped millions of dollars for dubious, or little, work.
Mr. Lafleur fell from grace in 2005 when he appeared at the Gomery inquiry into the scandal and claimed to have almost no memory of his involvement with the program. It was at that time that he sold his cottage in Sutton, Que., and left for Costa Rica and Belize. He was living in the latter country when he was charged with fraud last year, returning to Canada to plead guilty to allegations that he had defrauded the government on a number of sponsorship deals.
According to his bankruptcy filing, Mr. Lafleur now has worthless accounts at the Banco Nacional in Costa Rica, the First Caribbean International Bank, Hallmark Bank & Trust in the Turks and Caicos Islands, and at World Money Online.
He also declared valueless investments in Terra Nostra Resources, Palm Tree Development and other companies in Belize and Costa Rica.
Overall, Mr. Lafleur said his assets, including furniture, are worth a total of $8,013.
On the other hand, he said he owes $181,000 to the Canada Revenue Agency, $174,000 to the Quebec revenue agency, and $1.3-million to the federal government as part of its lawsuit against players in the scandal.
However, the government is arguing in court that Mr. Lafleur actually owes it $6.5-million for his role in the sponsorship program.
