See Ciment's post immediately above -- he posted a link before I did below; different link but same article.
Link below is to French-language article about Giuseppe Focarazzo. Some of you might recall his name on a list of wedding guests who attended the wedding reception in Montreal last December for Hells Angel Martin Robert and Annie Arbic. Focarazzo was sitting at a table with Antonio Pietrantonio and other Italians in Quebec considered affiliated with the Montreal Mafia. At the same table was Tony Iavarone of Ontario, brother of the murdered Al Iavarone who was killed last September.
A senior member of the Caisse de depot represented a high-ranking mafia official in a private loan while working for Quebecers' wool stockings, our Investigation Bureau discovered.
Our research on him continued. We discovered that even though he has been bankrupt since 2006, Edmondo Marandola continued to be involved in several financial transactions with businessmen.
Among them is Giuseppe Focarazzo, one of the leaders of Italian organized crime in Montreal.
Notarized loan
In March 2015, Edmondo Marandola signed for him a notarized loan of $ 110,000, according to the land register.
This loan was secured by the mock manor du Pegriot, an opulent residence in Mascouche, in the North Shore of Montreal, valued at nearly $ 700,000.
The money from this private loan went in part to the contractor responsible for the renovations on the Focarazzo house, but $ 5,000 also landed in the pockets of Edmondo Marandola, according to copies of checks that our office obtained. 'investigation.
The documents consulted do not explain why Mr. Marandola represented the Mafioso in this transaction.
The two men did not call back to answer our questions.
Mr. Marandola is also in the sights of the Royal Bank. Two weeks ago, the financial institution seized its shares in a retirement home project, after learning in our pages about its involvement in the project.
The suspended framework owes more than half a million dollars to the Royal Bank. He is still not released from bankruptcy, which dates back to 2006.
Cormier notably held a company for four years with Leonardo Rizzuto, the son of the former godfather of the Montreal mafia Vito Rizzuto (now deceased). Giovanna Cammalleri, the wife of Vito Rizzuto, was also a shareholder in this firm.
Martine Gaudreault has been involved in three businesses with her spouse since 2012. He stated that Ms. Gaudreault was not aware of her business relationship.
Giuseppe "Joey Gator" 43-year-old Focarazzo is leading a small group of mafia gangs who are particularly well connected to the Hells Angels, according to police sources. He also attended the wedding full patch Martin Robert in downtown Montreal last October.
Since the Coliseum survey in the 2000s, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) considered him a money collector of the Rizzuto clan.
A photographer from QMI Agency also shot him at the funeral of mafioso Rocco Sollecito in June 2016.
In December 2017, one of Giuseppe Focarazzo's numbered companies sold a condo in Repentigny to Giovanna Camalleri, the widow of former godfather Vito Rizzuto.
The Focarazzo company had seized an individual who had not been able to repay his loan, granted 57% interest per year. This rate is a hair's breadth away from the 60% that the Criminal Code considers a usurious rate.
Under surveillance
"Joey Gator" has been on the radar of RCMP investigators since the mid-2000s.
On August 20, 2006, officers observed her at the Laennec bar in Laval, one of the mafia's main haunts at the time, according to an overview of the evidence presented in September 2012 to the Charbonneau commission on contracts in construction.
That day, Focarazzo came to find especially Francesco Del Balso, a high ranking heavily involved in the financial operations of the Rizzuto clan.
The police officers were able to observe them "handling handguns," according to the evidence.
"They discuss firearms types and caliber and seem to compare their weapons," the federal police wrote.
The criminal record of Giuseppe Focarazzo is still light. In July 2004, he was fined and sentenced to two years for extortion, death threats or injuries, and for being in a vehicle carrying a prohibited weapon.
