Former aide testifies Michael Applebaum was ‘open to corruption’

MONTREAL – A former aide to ex-Montreal mayor Michael Applebaum says it took just several months on the job to conclude the longtime local politician was “open to corruption.”

More than three years after his high-profile June 2013 arrest and ensuing fall from public life, Applebaum’s two-week fraud trial began Monday with his ex-chief of staff taking the stand.

Hugo Tremblay, the first of several Crown witnesses, recalled a conversation with the then-borough mayor in Tremblay’s office about requesting money from a developer to secure a project in 2007.

“We gotta make a living,” Tremblay, then a political aide, quoted Applebaum as saying.

“During this informal meeting, I realized that Applebaum was no angel,” Tremblay continued. “I realized at that moment that Michael Applebaum was open to corruption.”

Applebaum faces 14 charges including fraud, corruption and breach of trust. He has pleaded not guilty to all of them.

Prosecutor Nathalie Kleber said she hopes to prove the longtime local politician accepted cash in exchange for favours given to local real-estate developers. Applebaum then allegedly used the money in political financing as well as for personal consumption.

The charges stem from Applebaum’s time as the mayor of Cote-des-Neiges/Notre Dame-de-Grace, the city’s largest borough.

He is best known in the rest of the country for his short-lived stint as the first anglophone Montreal mayor in nearly 100 years.

Applebaum, 53, served as interim mayor between November 2012 and June 2013 following Gerard Tremblay’s sudden departure.

Hugo Tremblay told Quebec court Judge Louise Provost he didn’t agree with Applebaum’s decision to seek the Montreal mayoralty.

“I knew that with the way we’d done things, it would multiply the number of enemies,” he said.

“Ultimately, I knew there were skeletons in the closet.”

Some of those were exposed for the court.

In one project, Tremblay said that just several months into the job, he was dispatched to seek payment from two developers hoping to build a student housing project dubbed Projet Troie.

Tremblay explained it was Applebaum who coached him on how to set up illegal fundraising and seek cash from developers, telling him they’d understand an “extra effort” was necessary to get the project done. Tremblay never used the word ‘kickback” in his testimony.

Tremblay said Applebaum encouraged him to make the call to one of the contractors,assuring him the man would understand what he wanted. Tremblay said Applebaum first suggested seeking $100,000 but Tremblay felt ill at ease and revised that number to $50,000 before finally asking for $35,000.

He testified the developer paid the money in three instalments in the form of cash stuffed in video game boxes, with two-thirds going to Applebaum and one-third to Tremblay. The money was allegedly exchanged in their private vehicles.

Tremblay said he later became the initiator of the deals, successfully securing $25,000 in 2010 for a contract for the maintenance of a massive new sports complex. That amount was spilt evenly with Applebaum, who endorsed the deal, Tremblay testified.

The former political operative says his cut of the cash went to fancy dinners, clothes and travel.

The pressure began to mount as investigators with the Charbonneau Commission, which looked into political and construction corruption, questioned him gruffly not long after Applebaum became mayor in 2012.

“Don’t lose any sleep over this,” Tremblay quoted Applebaum as saying.

Quebec provincial police began bearing down on him in 2013 and Tremblay finally confessed, saying he felt relieved.

Police then asked him to wear a wire to tap Applebaum’s conversations.

Tremblay was not convinced the tactic would work: he testified his former boss never mentioned money and was very cautious in discussing any deals.

Police made three separate wiretap attempts, Tremblay told the trial before it adjourned for the day.

He returns to the stand Tuesday.