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Ducarme Joseph, behind bars after surviving an assassination attempt this spring, owns a six-bedroom stone mansion in a toney district of a Montreal suburb and he's put it up for sale for $1.6 million.
The selling price for the stone-faced luxury home at 64 Radisson Street in Dollard des Ormeaux is $250,000 more than Joseph paid for it in September 2008, property records show.
Despite Joseph's lengthy criminal history and record for drug trafficking, violent physical assaults and gun violence, including a case where he pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting and forcing a 12-year-old girl into prostitution, banking giant HSBC gave Joseph a $1,275,000 mortgage to help buy the Dollard home, a QMI Agency investigation has found.
This fall, HSBC was linked to efforts to provide 1,700 Canadians with secret Swiss bank accounts, and the federal and Quebec governments are now investigating possible tax evasion.
Joseph, who is scheduled to be released from a jail in Rimouski, Que., sometime between now and Nov. 1, needs either a sale or fast cash because he now risks losing his home, records show.
The cities of Montreal and Dollard des Ormeaux have filed notices they may seize the home for non-payment of property taxes.
His city tax bill is more than $10,500 a year; school taxes are another $4,600 a year, according to the real estate agent's listing statement.
HSBC filed a $24,569 lien against the property last month for unpaid debts.
Real estate agent Fadi Kaouk of Royal Lepage in St-Leonard, Que., confirms the house has been on the market for two months and that there have been a few visits. Kaouk describes Joseph's Dollard-Des-Ormeaux home as "a majestic stone cottage." Its interior features six bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms, and a double garage with enough space to park six cars.
The residence includes three levels. All feature either ceramic or hardwood floors.
It also features a luxury gourmet kitchen with gleaming new appliances, though Joseph was frequently seen in the city's priciest restaurants, bars and eateries. It also includes an outdoor inground heated pool and hot tub, a well-equipped gym - and a sophisticated alarm system.
A video of Joseph's home appears on YouTube.
It shows very expensive leather furniture and sofas, massive flat-screen televisions, four-post wooden beds worth thousands of dollars each, the private gym, and a built-in and well-stocked wine rack in the gourmet kitchen.
It is not clear why police have not already seized Joseph's home using federal proceeds of crime legislation, which allows police investigators, with court permission, to seize assets and freeze bank accounts of known organized crime leaders.
However, Joseph has bragged of having influence in the political world, according to a 43-page police intelligence report by Montreal Police Sgt Det. Jean-Claude Gauthier that was tabled during a Quebec Court bail hearing this spring.
The police report stated Joseph was the leader of a violent street gang known as the 67's, named after a city bus that travels in the St. Michel District of the north-end Montreal.
It also described a summer 2009 incident that saw Joseph step in front of Montreal police officers as they tried to arrest a suspect who refused to identify himself in a downtown bar.
Joseph told the officers he would sick his lawyers on them, adding "that he knew people in politics who were far more influential than the City of Montreal police chief," according to the intelligence report. The people to whom Joseph was referring were not identified.
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