Victims of convicted fraudster Vincent Lacroix were livid to hear that he's been granted bail after serving 18 months of an eight-and-a-half year sentence.
Lacroix, who bilked 9,000 investors as president of the now-defunct Norbourg group of companies, was freed on Wednesday afternoon pending his criminal trial on nearly 200 fraud-related charges.
He'll have to stay in a Montreal halfway house, and Corrections Canada is considering adding extra secuity to the location.
But that doesn't give comfort to his victims, some of whom lost their life savings when more than $100 million vanished.
"It doesn't make sense that this guy's getting free after what he did," said Michel Vezina, who lost $300,000 in the Norbourg scam.
"I was at work today. I was at work yesterday. It's terrible -- I'm 70 years old."
Presumed innocent
Justice Richard Wagner of Quebec Superior Court said in his decision Wednesday that Lacroix must be presumed innocent as he faces his latest court battle against the criminal charges laid while he was in prison for securities fraud.
Lacroix was sentenced to 12 years less a day in prison in January 2008 after being convicted of the securities violations.
Another judge later reduced the sentence to eight-and-a-half years.
Massive scam
Lacroix was found guilty of masterminding a massive investment scam that bilked 9,200 mostly small-time investors out of $115 million.
The Crown argued that Lacroix's charges were too serious and the public would not accept any decision to give him bail.
But Wagner said the public would understand the presumption of innocence, which is among the reasons he decided to grant bail under certain conditions.
Lacroix was released after paying $5,000 bail and posting a $50,000 bond.
His must surrender his passport and live in a halfway house for nine months.
Lacroix's criminal trial is scheduled to begin in September.
But his lawyers are trying to have the proceedings dismissed by arguing he can't be tried twice on the charges.
With files from The Canadian Press
