A Montreal city division chief who had swindled in favor of a real estate developer who did not respect the rules has just been found guilty of corruption, despite prefabricated excuses to get out of it.
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“Sadek [Lazzouzi]we’ve been working together for 10 years, he’s capable of doing anything for money,” entrepreneur Tinel Timu had already confided when speaking of his “friend” who was then head of the permits and inspections division for the Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough.
The latter had then denied these remarks, blaming it all on a promoter who made things up to brag and look good. Except that it was clearly true, ruled Judge Salvatore Mascia in declaring the fallen civil servant guilty of breach of trust, this Wednesday, at the Montreal courthouse.
Lazzouzi, 54, committed his crime in late 2021, in connection with the renovation of a building on rue Bourbonnière by real estate developer Tinel Timu. The permit indicated that the building was to have eight dwellings, but the builder built twice as many, without obtaining an exemption.
Calling “his guy”
“Despite the fact that the building was completed, the non-compliance had to be addressed and resolved,” the judge explained. “For all practical purposes, this would mean converting the building into eight apartments.”
Except that the real estate developer, who has since been murdered in Laval, had another option: contact Lazzouzi, whom he presented as “his guy” while boasting of “working together.”
And shortly after, the division head ordered one of his employees to close Timu’s file, indicating that it was a “technical closure.”
“A file marked ‘Closed’ will be forgotten, it passes under the radar of the hundreds of files handled by a building inspector,” explained the magistrate.
The case was first revealed by our Investigation Bureau, which discovered that a Timu employee had tried to bribe an honest civil servant who had reported the incident.
He plays on words
Lazzouzi had been investigated, so his little game was exposed. Although he was criminally accused, he defended himself in the hope of being acquitted.
So he started playing with words by claiming that he had never “closed the file” but rather “closed the building permit”. Without success, since it was only a question of “pure semantics”, according to the judge.
Then, when confronted with the discussions and meetings between the promoter and the accused at key moments in the case, the latter swept everything under the carpet by talking about “coincidences”.
“While it is possible, there are simply too many for the accused’s testimony to provide a plausible explanation for his conduct,” the judge retorted. “Coincidence or chance has its limits.”
What was clear, however, was that Lazzouzi had not acted in the public interest by helping the developer, and that he had done so knowingly. So despite all his denials, Lazzouzi was found guilty.
The disgraced official will return to court in the coming weeks for arguments on the sentence to be imposed.
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