Revenu Québec has just asserted its rights over two condos linked to a Québec broker who was found guilty by his professional order of having bought the confidential information of at least 150,000 Desjardins clients for $100,000.
On June 29, the tax authorities issued a legal mortgage on these condos, which belong to a numbered company, whose president and sole shareholder is Mathieu Joncas. They are located near the Le Relais ski center in Lac-Beauport, in the Quebec region.
The Joncas firm owes nearly $82,000 in unpaid taxes since 2021, according to allegations from Revenu Québec, recorded in documents consulted by our Bureau of Investigation.
Mathieu Joncas is one of a dozen suspects in the criminal investigation into the megatheft of personal data of Desjardins Group customers, a case that came to light in 2019.
No one has yet been charged as part of this Sûreté du Québec investigation, which began more than four years ago and is still ongoing.
He erases the contents of his computer
However, in September 2021, the disciplinary committee of the Organisme d’autoréglementation du courtage immobilier du Québec (OACIQ) found Mathieu Joncas guilty of having purchased lists of confidential data concerning “150,000 to 200,000” people, in 2016 or 2017.
According to the OACIQ trustee, Joncas had thus paid $1 for each of the first 50,000 names, and 40 cents for each of the other names on his lists, which notably contained information on the credit file of Desjardins clients.
He also destroyed the contents of his computer in June 2019 after Desjardins went public to reveal that he had been the target of data theft, according to the trustee.
Joncas was then sentenced to a one-year suspension of his broker’s license as well as fines of $36,000.
Lawsuit against Desjardins
Reached by telephone, the lawyer for Mathieu Joncas, Me Olivier Desjardins, explained that the recourse of Revenu Québec was linked to a disagreement on the payment of dividends between two companies which belong to the broker.
According to him, Mathieu Joncas would never have received a notice of assessment issued by the tax authorities in recent months.
“He will file a notice of objection to make his point to Revenu Québec,” said Ms.e Gardens.
Last April, Mathieu Joncas filed a civil lawsuit against the Fédération des caisses Desjardins. He criticizes the institution for having withdrawn certain financial advantages from him in the fall of 2019, including access to lines of credit. It had caused him “tremendous financial stress” and “loss of income”.
His lawyer had then indicated to Radio-Canada that the damages claimed would be at least one million dollars.
– With the collaboration of Philippe Langlois
2023-07-05 15:43:51
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