Judge Michel Bellehumour also ordered him to pay $1.5 million to his victims as compensation.
Including the time already spent in detention, the 71-year-old businessman must therefore still spend close to four years in prison.
Folla was accused of being behind a series of arsons against competitors over a period of several years. He ordered fires at competing branches in the Laurentians between 2017 and 2022, and plotted until 2024.
Several fires were started and caused significant damage, in particular, according to the court document.
- December 6, 2017: fire at 204 Principale, Saint-Sauveur – Royal LePage Humania ($54,736 damage)
- December 25, 2018: fire at 204 Principale, Saint-Sauveur – Royal LePage Humania ($1,945,000 in damages)
- January 24, 2019: fire at 228 boul. Curé-Labelle, Sainte-Thérèse – Royal LePage Humania ($854,000 in damages)
- February 26, 2021: fire at 286 rue Principale, Saint-Sauveur – Re/Max Bonjour (burned by mistake) ($2,500,000 in damages)
- June 6, 2021: fire at 204 rue Principale, Saint-Sauveur – Royal LePage Humania ($162,000 damage)
- November 14 and 15, 2022: fire at 228 boul. Curé Labelle, Sainte-Thérèse – Royal LePage Humania ($500,000 damages)
- November 14 and 15, 2022: fire at 204 rue Principale, Saint-Sauveur – Royal LePage Humania ($50,000 damage)
That's a total of nine fires and nearly $6 million in damage.
The crimes were motivated by “revenge” when François Léger and Christian Bouvrette left Sutton to work at Royal Lepage.
The events took place in Sainte-Thérèse and Saint-Sauveur.
Folla, with the help of Julie Gaucher, established Sutton in Quebec in 1995, according to history available on the agency's official website. He and Gaucher were, at the time, “driven by a passion for real estate and human values”. The Sutton group was founded in 1983 in Vancouver before establishing itself in our province.
With information from Joe Lofaro for CTV News.
