Retired construction entrepreneur Antonio (Tony) Accurso and four companies he owned in the past have been fined more than $4 million for provincial tax evasion.

The sentence was delivered at the Laval courthouse Friday morning. Accurso and the companies — Simard Beaudry Construction Inc., Constructions Louisbourg ltée, Construction Marton and Louisbourg Simard Beaudry Construction Inc. — will have two years to pay the fines worth a total of close to $4.2 million.

At least two of the companies sentenced on Friday were part of the criminal case that revealed Accurso was involved in a conspiracy to fix prices, along with many other construction entrepreneurs, for contracts awarded by the city of Laval many years ago. Laval’s former mayor, Gilles Vaillancourt, was revealed to have co-ordinated the price-fixing scheme along with city administrators.

According to a statement issued by Revenue Quebec on Friday, the four companies admitted to “participating, between March 2005 and March 2010, in a system of false invoices produced by nine shell companies. The invoices were, among other things, produced for fictitious services” involving transport.

The fake invoices were used by Accurso’s companies to significantly reduce the amount of revenue they would report when they filed tax returns.

“The investigation also established that Mr. Accurso omitted to include, in the calculation of his taxable revenue for the years 2005 to 2009, an amount of $7,234,775. He therefore eluded paying at least $1,300,000 in taxes.”

Accurso was personally fined more than $1.9 million following his guilty pleas to two charges. He also admitted he took part in violating the Excise Tax Act through his four companies. Simard Beaudry Construction Inc. was ordered to pay the highest fine, more than $1.4 million, out of the four construction firms.

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