SAINT-JEROME | A 7-year-old who has made a living as a moneylender for ten years faces nine months in prison for taking out loans at illegal interest rates, including one at nearly 120%… which he even had notarized.
“We are still talking about 76% to 118%. The rates are currently incredibly lower,” Crown prosecutor Me Gabriel Sénéchal said Friday during observations of the sentence of Jean-Yves Boulé at the Saint-Jérôme courthouse.
In March last year, the 70-year-old man was found guilty of having entered into three agreements to charge interest at punishable rates of over 60 per cent.
In her ruling, Judge Kathlyn Gauthier confirmed that the Kanesatake resident had engaged in “willful blindness” when it came to entering into those three contracts, between 2017 and 2019.
These caused it to generate interest rates of exactly 76%, 107% and 118% on loans totaling approximately $30,000.
Punishment
That’s because the person who had taken out personal loans for more than ten years told the court that he was not aware of the nuance between the interest rate and the APR.
“He believed that he should only respect a nominal annual interest rate of no more than 60%,” we read in the judgment.
Boulé therefore took the liberty of adding penalty clauses to these contracts to ensure he was paid, his lawyer, Ms.e Alexandra Longueville.
However, the judge recalled in his decision that “ignorance of the law in a person who commits an offense does not excuse the commission of the offense.”
Sole beneficiary
In addition, today Boulé continues to minimize his responsibility by saying that he should have been warned by his notary, who had certified the disputed contracts at the time. The latter, Simon Chartrand, no longer practices.
“He deliberately used a judicial officer to legitimize a criminal act,” said M.e Seneschal. It was up to him to take action. He was the sole beneficiary of these loans. At the end of the day, he was the one doing the transactions.”
For his part, Chartrand abandoned the profession. He was notably found guilty by his order of having contributed to the disappearance of nearly $3.8 million in Cambodia for Joliette real estate developer Jean-François Malo.
In the usury case, he received six months of community confinement and had to forfeit the $600 in fees he had received when he signed those contracts.
Economic losses
In addition, Boulé has alleged financial problems since his arrest, having stopped borrowing.
“You didn’t tell him to stop making loans, but to make loans at a criminal rate,” observed Me Sénéchal also requested a two-year suspended sentence along with the sentence.
Boulé’s lawyer suggested a conditional discharge instead. He had no criminal history.
Judge Gauthier will deliver his decision next September.