"I am going to put my energies into my defense and into my family,"
Applebaum, who insists he is innocent, said. "This is why I am resigning
as mayor of Montreal - it is the responsible thing to do,” he stressed.
Michael Applebaum and Chabad Rabbi David Cohen
Originally published at 10:35 pm CDT 6-18-2013
Montreal’s First Jewish Mayor Resigns Amid Corruption Charges
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
Montreal’s first Jewish mayor, Michael Applebaum, has resigned one day after he was arrested and charged with fraud and corruption, Reuters reported Tuesday afternoon.
"I am going to put my energies into my defense and into my family," Applebaum, who insists he is innocent, said. "This is why I am resigning as mayor of Montreal - it is the responsible thing to do,” he stressed.
Applebaum, who was appointed mayor in November, had promised to clean up Montreal’s culture of corruption.
A two-year public inquiry has brought almost daily allegations of contract rigging, kickbacks and fraud going back many years. Some of those allegations involve Applebaum.
Harout Chitilian, the speaker of Montreal's city council, said that the corruption did not happen overnight.
"It's a systemic issue, and we realize from the Charbonneau inquiry that, over the past two decades, perhaps even the past three decades, the system was infiltrated by dark forces," Chitilian reportedly told the CBC.
Applebaum faces 14 charges that include fraud, breach of trust, conspiracy, municipal corruption and tens of thousands of secret payments stemming from two real estate deals when he was the mayor of Montreal's Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough.
Applebaum staunchly maintains his innocence.
"I have never taken a penny from anybody ... the accusations against me are unfounded," he said.
Related Post: Montreal's First Jewish Mayor Arrested On Corruption Charges.