Vincent Lacroix goes straight to jail after surprise guilty plea

Jurors were still being selected for a scheduled four-month-long Quebec Superior Court trial when Lacroix unexpectedly changed his plea Monday.

Defence lawyer Clemente Monterosso said Lacroix always intended to plead guilty to the charges laid by the RCMP once two attempts he made to have the trial quashed were dealt with.

Lacroix’s lawyer’s had argued that a person cannot be tried twice for the same offences and that Lacroix was unable to benefit from presumption of innocence because of the extraordinary publicity about him since his August 2005 arrest. The court rejected those arguments and was preparing to try Lacroix on multiple counts of fraud, conspiracy to defraud, conspiracy to commit forgery, fabricating documents and money laundering. Lacroix pleaded guilty to ripping off 9,200 investors out of $115 million over a five-year period.