Chez Cora Chairman Questions Use of ‘Presumed Kidnapping’ During Trial

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The chairman of the Chez Cora restaurant chain grew weary on Friday of how he was being cross-examined at the trial of the man who allegedly kidnapped him, and demanded that the defendant’s lawyer stop referring to what happened as “the alleged kidnapping.”

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The exchange between Nicholas Tsouflidis and Hovsep Dadaghalian, the defense attorney representing Laval resident Paul Zaidan, turned heated for the second time since the attorney began his cross-examination on Wednesday.

At one point, Superior Court Judge François Dadour had to intervene and ask both men “to lower the tension a bit.”

Zaidan, 52, is charged with kidnapping Tsouflidis on March 8, 2017, holding him against his will for hours, and trying to extort $ 11 million from Tsouflidis’s mother, Cora Tsouflidis, the restaurant chain’s founder. .

The exchange heated up on Friday when Dadaghalian mentioned, for the second time, a possible rift between the company’s president and his brother that emerged sometime before Tsouflidis’s kidnapping.

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Based on Dadaghalian’s questions, in 2017, a decision was made to share the profits and pay $ 200,000 to each member of the Tsouflidis family who owned shares in the company. However, Tsouflidis’ brother, who owned 12 percent of Chez Cora’s franchise business, was only paid $ 50,000.

Tsouflidis repeated that he did not remember how much his brother had received. He confirmed that, before being abducted, his brother returned to Quebec in April 2016, after having lived in Greece for 15 years, and sought a clerical job in the Chez Cora development department. Your request was rejected.

“Why did I say no? It was because I had no experience and because we don’t employ people just because they have the (family’s) surname, ”Tsouflidis said, adding that the people in the management of the three Chez Cora companies“ are hired on merit ”.

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Dadaghalian then asked Tsouflidis if his brother started attending Chez Cora’s business meetings after he returned from Greece in 2016.

“Did my brother come to the office? The answer is yes, but it was to see the family, ”said Tsouflidis.

It was then that Dadaghalian asked if Tsouflidis’s brother participated in any of the Chez Cora meetings between April 2016 and “the alleged kidnapping.” Dadaghalian had used the phrase several times since Wednesday.

“My first answer is about the kidnapping. It was not an alleged kidnapping. Second, my brother participated in the meetings. But I don’t remember if it was just family reunions. My brother did not make decisions for the companies, ”said Tsouflidis.

While answering a follow-up question, Tsouflidis asked Dadaghalian to stop referring to what happened to him as an alleged kidnapping.

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Dadaghalian also asked whether Tsouflidis’s brother sold his shares in Chez Cora’s companies “below market value” after the kidnapping.

Tsouflidis replied that Chez Cora agreed to buy his shares, but only because his brother needed money at the time.

“He got a real market value (for the shares),” Tsouflidis said later that day. “There are things you say are true, but there are things that are not.”

Hours earlier, when Dadaghalian’s questions referred to the kidnapping, Tsouflidis said he never asked his kidnappers how much they expected to get in return for his return to safety. He said one of the men told him that they expected to be paid by “bank transfers,” but no amount was mentioned to him.

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