MONTREAL: FBI agent Joe Pistone, whose alias Donnie Brasco was made famous by a Hollywood flick starring Al Pacino and Johnny Depp for infiltrating the New York mafia, will testify at a Quebec corruption inquiry that resumed Monday.
Pistone is expected to provide inside knowledge about North America's criminal underworld, gained largely during a six-year sting operation in the late-1970s that saw him infiltrate two powerful New York mob families.
The exact date that he will take the stand, however, has not been announced.
The commission headed by Superior Court Justice France Charbonneau is looking into alleged graft, bid-rigging and kickbacks in the awarding of government construction contracts.
The probe was launched in May after a leaked report by a provincial anti-graft pointed to evidence that construction companies were banding together to keep prices high -- and possibly had links to organized crime.
During her two-year mandate, Charbonneau is tasked with looking into the activities over the past 15 years of construction firms handling government contracts, and any possible illicit financing of political parties.
It will release its findings in 2013.
Pistone, who earned the trust of members of the Bonanno and Colombo crime families and their associates in order to build up a case that eventually led to the arrest of more than 200 gangsters, will describe for the commission how the mafia do business.
Having never met any Montreal mobsters with ties to the New York families while undercover, he is not likely to point any fingers at individuals.
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