Late on the night of Sept. 24, 2003, Lorenzo Giordano left a bar after polishing off an entire bottle of Grappa and crashed a brand new Ferrari 550 Maranello into a car parked near an exit off Highway 440 in Laval, Que. Giordano left the scene of the accident without leaving a note.

The Ferrari was a present from Del Balso and Carmelo Cannistraro, a man currently charged with being part of Giordano and Del Balso’s bookmaking operation. The Ferrari had yet to be properly registered when Giordano crashed it. Less than an hour after the accident, a Colisee wiretap recorded a conversation during which Giordano fretted to Del Balso over the likelihood of getting caught. The accident caused significant damage to the Ferrari. Pieces of it, including the bumper, were left at the scene. Both Del Balso and Giordano realized how easy it would be for the police to track down a car as rare as the Ferrari.

The following morning, Del Balso had advice for Giordano.

“John Scotti’s going to take care of it,” Del Balso assured his friend. “He’s the master of hiding cars.”

The police believe this was a reference to John Scotti, the owner of John Scotti Auto, a luxury car dealership in St. Leonard. Giordano expressed concerns about bringing the damaged, eye-catching Ferrari out during the day. The court summary refers to Del Balso calling John Scotti and telling him about the accident. According to the summary, “Scotti said the best thing would be to get the car at night.”

Scotti did not respond to a request for an interview several months ago when the court summary was submitted as evidence in a bail hearing, and was unavailable for comment yesterday. In interviews with both the Journal de Montreal and La Presse newspapers, Scotti denied knowing Del Balso or “those people.” In one of the interviews, he mentioned that his repair shop has 150 employees and that the reference to “John Scotti” could have been to the repair shop in general.