The owner of a company hired to conduct site supervision work on Winnipeg’s police headquarters told the public inquiry into the project he didn’t question a series of back-and-forth exchanges of money with contractor Caspian Construction.

In 2012, Caspian paid Fabca Projects 15 cheques that Fabca later returned to companies controlled by Caspian principals, the inquiry has heard over the past two weeks.

In all of those instances, no actual work was conducted, Fabca owner Greg Fiorentino testified Tuesday, adding he expected Caspian to assign subtrades to his company in order to conduct demolition work.

“It was his money. It wasn’t my money,” Fiorentino told the inquiry, referring to Caspian principal Armik Babakhanians.

“I figured eventually I’m going to get instructions on what to do.”

The public inquiry into Winnipeg’s police headquarters follows a pair of city-commissioned audits, a five-year RCMP investigation that concluded without charges and a pair of city lawsuits, including one settled in 2023 by Caspian and other defendants.

On March 9, forensic accountant Victor Neufeld told the inquiry Caspian billed the city for $45 million to $50 million worth of police HQ work that was not conducted.

That included $19 million worth of Fabca invoices that were not connected with any actual work, Neufeld testified.

In 2012, Caspian office manager Pam Anderson asked Fiorentino via email not to disclose the cheque exchanges between the Fabca and Caspian-controlled companies, the inquiry was told.

“I would like to keep the cheque exchange between me and you,” Anderson said in the email, which was provided to the inquiry as an exhibit.

On Tuesday, Fiorentino acknowledged he did not question the exchange of cheques between Caspian and Fabca.

“I had no thinking about it at all. It was his company,” Fiorentino testified. “It’s Armik’s project. They manage how they manage. I didn’t ask the question.”

Fiorentino said no subtrades were ever assigned to his firm during the police headquarters project. He acknowledged Fabca was paid $293,000 for its site supervision work on the project.

The RCMP interviewed Fiorentino in 2016 as part of their investigation of the police headquarters project, the inquiry was told.

In 2020, the city sued Caspian, Fabca and dozens of other companies involved in the police headquarters project, accusing them of a “scheme” of fraud, embezzlement and kickbacks. While the city dropped the lawsuit against Fabca and most of the other defendants, Caspian settled with the city in 2023.

Caspian must pay the city $23 million by March 24, according to the settlement. If it misses that deadline, Caspian must pay the city $28 million.

‘Still finding out how nasty people are’

Earlier Tuesday, the inquiry heard testimony from Sheldon Pitz, the owner of demolition company Tiger Ventures, which removed materials from the former Canada Post warehouse complex when it was being converted into the police headquarters.

Tiger sued Caspian in 2021 over a $2.3-million demolition agreement, claiming it was not paid for all the work it conducted on the project. That suit remains before the courts.

Pitz told the inquiry he was not compensated for approximately $1 million worth of demolition work on the project. He said he is still recovering from that loss.

He was also asked how he felt about Caspian billing the city for millions of dollars of work Tiger conducted and attributing that work to Fabca.

“I was a farm boy. I didn’t know this stuff existed. I’m still finding out how nasty people are,” Pitz told the inquiry.

The inquiry, which began last month and is slated to run until June, is also hearing testimony Tuesday from Peter Giannuzzi of G&G Interiors, another subcontractor on the headquarters project.