Scandal Mount Real: Lino Matteo wants to avoid prison because of the delays

Archival Photo Pierre-Paul Poulin
Lino Matteo
Guilty

Michael Nguyen

Monday, 16 October 2017 12:47

UPDATE
Monday, 16 October 2017 12:47

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The head of a vast financial scandal Mount Real were asked to avoid prison due to judicial deadlines, much to the chagrin of one of his victims present in the court Saturday.

“I want to see Lino Matteo behind bars “, said without equivocation, Janet Watson, at the output of the hearing at the palais de justice of Montreal.

Ms. Watson was still against Matteo, who caused him to lose $ 68,000 savings there are more than 10 years. It is part of the 1600 victims who lost more than $ 130 million in total.

Photo Michaël Nguyen

Janet Watson, of the 1600 victims of Lino Matteo in the scandal Mount Real, is convinced that the focus will be the sentence on appeal once it is made.

The scandal Mount Real dates back to the late 1990s, when Matteo headed this company that said it was specialized in the sale of magazine subscriptions, but that was financed by inflows of money from new investors, in the manner of a fraud to the Ponzi scheme.

Time

The case had erupted there more than a decade, but it took until 2008 for charges to be filed. Matteo has since been convicted, under the securities Act.

For Stéphane Poulin, avocat of the French financial markets Authority [AMF], the accused, 55-year-old should hit a maximum sentence of five years less a day in prison, and a fine of 4.88 million $.

$1 million

But the long duration of the procedures must be taken into account, replied to Me, Sylvie Bordelais, of the defence, referring to the famous judgment in Jordan on a reasonable amount of time. She suggested a suspended sentence and a fine of a little over a million dollars.

Such an award would not, however, Janet Watson, who recalls that Matteo said no more money.

“A million dollars, it is a joke, she commented. Our justice system is really broken, that’s why it lasts so long. [Matteo] has done is unforgivable. A person has committed suicide, others have developed mental health problems, it is to break the heart. “

Judge Hélène Morin will make his sentence next month. She warned Matteo to be “ready for any eventuality,” which is also on appeal from his conviction and sentence to eight years in prison in the scandal of the house of the production of cartoons Cinar.