Jacques Corriveau sentencing arguments set for Nov. 28-29

MONTREAL – Sentencing arguments for a former federal Liberal organizer who was convicted on three fraud-related charges in connection with the sponsorship program will take place later this month.

A jury found Jacques Corriveau guilty Tuesday after five days of deliberations.

Lawyers will be back before Quebec Superior Court Justice Jean-François Buffoni on Nov. 28 and 29.

Corriveau, 83, had been charged with fraud against the government, forgery and laundering the proceeds of crime between 1997 and 2003.

The Crown successfully argued he had set up an elaborate kickback system on contracts doled out during the sponsorship program, using his Pluri Design Canada Inc. firm to defraud the federal government.

Corriveau was not in court Friday.

Corriveau, who worked on ex-prime minister Jean Chretien’s Liberal leadership campaigns and was close to him, was accused of pocketing $6.5 million.

The judge who headed the commission into the sponsorship scandal described Corriveau in his report about 10 years ago as the ”central figure” in the kickback scheme.

Crown prosecutor Jacques Dagenais says one of the issues to be addressed at the sentencing arguments will be Corriveau’s blocked assets.

“There’s a house and sums of about $1.1 million, which the Crown will ask be confiscated,” Dagenais said.