| Wallace Lee |
| Authorities first began to suspect that Lee might be involved in organized crime when he and his wife were spotted at the wedding of Francesco Cotroni Jr. and Milena Di Maulo. Lee travelled regularly to Europe, the Caribbean, and Africa on business. On one trip to Morocco, he allegedly met with Guy Guertin, an executive at Polycrete Inc., a company that was about to receive a $70 million contract from the Moroccan government. Lee called Serero and, in a telephone call recorded by police, reportedly told him that they would make 20 to 30 percent of the contract, between $14 million and $21 million over a one year period. In March 1995, RCMP documents say, Lee, carrying a briefcase containing $60,000 in cash in it, met with the owners of a luxurious Dorval home. Serero wanted to rent their $900,000 house, located on Ducharme Street, but the owners supposedly insisted on meeting Serero himself and wanted postdated cheques with his signature on them, not the briefcase stuffed with money. They later received the cheques. That summer, Lee and Serero allegedly set up a company that set up 5,000 boxes around the city to collect donations for AIDS. In one conversation recorded by the RCMP, Serero reportedly told Lee "The thing is booming by the minute." The two expected the scheme to eventually bring in $200,000 in donations every month, it was reported. Even though the conversations recorded by the RCMP led authorities to believe that that Lee and Serero had no intention of donating the contributions to AIDS research, no charged were laid against either man for the alleged scam. Lee and Serero were among 24 people arrested on April 17, 1996 in a bust of amassive joint drug operation between the Serero Gang and Montreal Mafia. The arrests came just before Serero and his crew were about to put their hands on another 170 kilos of cocaine. Lee was picked up at his downtown Montreal condominium and posed no resistance. Police seized three of the group's drug shipments during the investigation - 2200 kilograms of hash in Montreal, 400 kilos in Toronto, and another 500 kilos in London. The gang was charged with importing 3500 kilos of cocaine and hashish between April 1, 1994, and April 18, 1996. Two members of Serero's crew, Lee Gilbert and Steve Cunha, would later turn against their associates and become government witnesses. Lee obtained bail on May 21, after his wife, actress and model Uni Park, and mother posted the $50,000 bail. Lee gave up his passport and agreed to report to authorities any transaction he did that exceeded $1,000. Lee surprised everyone when on November 2, 1997, eight days before his trial was set to begin, he pleaded guilty to participating in the importation of 3400 kilograms drugs. He was sentenced that same day to two years in prison and fined $135,000. He got off the hook with a light sentence, especially since prosecutors said they could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Lee was the gang's money launderer. He also lost his position at Wood Gundy Inc., where he had been making more than $100,000 a year. |
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| Wallace Lee was born in Montreal in the late 1950s. Over time, he got to know Daniel "The Arab" Serero, the reputed head of a drug network, and according to authorities, began to play a major role in the latter's criminal activities. Police allege that Lee, who then worked as a vice-president at Wood Gundy Inc., acted as the Serero crew's money launderer, washing the gang's illicit gains through companies he set up, and was responsible for paying their drug suppliers. Lee also reputedly handled most of Serero's personal finances, such as purchasing his luxury automobiles, renting his homes, and paying off his credit cards. |