Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Ex-Montreal Mayor Michael Applebaum Faces Wider Corruption Probe

Former Montreal Mayor Michael Applebaum is now implicated in a decades-long “system of corruption,” that police now believe involved developers bribing public officials with “thousands of dollars” for zoning changes, the Montreal Gazette reported.

When Applebaum, 50, was arrested in July of this year, he faced 14 charges of fraud, conspiracy, and corruption among others due to two questionable real estate deals dating to his mayoral tenure of the Montreal borough Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grâce from 2002 to 2012.

On Thursday, Montreal police widened the scope of the investigation against him.

Police told La Presse and Radio-Canada that they are now investigating 10 major real estate transactions between 2002 and 2012 in the Côte borough. A city councilor and borough mayor are also under arrest.

Applebaum was the first Jewish person to serve as mayor of Montreal, as well as the first anglophone in 100 years, although he speaks fluent French. He is schedule to make his first court appearance on October 9.

The Montreal Gazette pointed out that Applebaum is just the latest in a string of mayors from the Quebec province who have been implicated in corruption scandals. Mayor Gilles Vaillancourt of the town of Laval, in the south of the province, was arrested in May 2013 and charged with Fraud and gangsterism.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.