The provincial liquor board has turned down a request from the owners of the Montreal Observation Wheel to serve alcohol at their restaurant in the Old Port, based on concerns the Montreal police have with one of the restaurant’s suppliers, a man with known ties to the Montreal Mafia.
The owners of the Grande Roue de Montréal Hospitalité, the ferris wheel that has become a popular tourist attraction and part of Montreal’s skyline since it was opened in 2017 as part of the city’s 375th anniversary, recently requested a liquor permit for the bistro they built next to it. Police were opposed to the permit being granted because of the frequent presence of Montreal businessman Steve Vogl at the site. The Régie des Alcools, des courses et des jeux held a series of hearings on the matter in January and February and, on Thursday, released its decision rejecting the request.
During the hearings, the Montreal police said it believed Vogl is a part owner of the Observation Wheel while its owners — president Jeff Jorgensen and his father, Niels — insisted he is only a supplier to them. They also said they would continue doing business with Vogl despite the serious allegations made by the police about his ties to the Montreal Mafia.
A Montreal police officer assigned to look into the owners’ first request in 2017 testified that he tried several times to meet with Jeff Jorgensen to discuss his company’s ownership without success. Another officer making a routine visit to the site in the Old Port testified that when he asked an employee whose luxury car was parked there, the employee said it belonged to Vogl and described him as one of the owners of the tourist attraction.
According to the decision released Thursday, during the hearings the owners provided a detailed account of the project’s financing and their version was not contradicted by lawyers arguing on the side of the Montreal police.
Vogl has a criminal record that includes a 1992 conviction in the U.S. for having smuggled a massive shipment of hashish from Lebanon that was destined for Canada. He was sentenced to a 90-month prison term and was able to serve the final part of it after being returned to Canada.
During the spring of 2013, Vogl opened a clothing store in downtown Montreal that carried a popular line of clothing made in Italy. The store threw a lavish party the evening it opened and a Montreal police investigator noticed that Mob boss Vito Rizzuto was in attendance, wearing a pink dress shirt and very much at ease as he stood outside the store chatting with other party guests. The investigator noted at the time that it appeared to be the first time Rizzuto appeared to comfortable out in public following his return, late in 2012, from having been incarcerated in the U.S. and after his organization had been under attack for years. The clothing store has since gone out of business.
“It’s like (Rizzuto) is sending a message that he is back and he’s not hiding anymore,” the investigator told the Montreal Gazette in 2013 while expressing surprise at how the then head of the Montreal Mafia appeared to have suddenly emerged from the shadows.
The decision released Thursday notes that at around the same time, on May 9, 2013, police noticed that Vogl was seen seated at the same table as Rizzuto while both men dined at a downtown restaurant.
The liquor board felt that while the police failed to make a convincing argument that the company is part-owned by Vogl, it had concerns with how the Jorgensens insisted they will continue doing business with Vogl despite what was said before the tribunal.
“If we add the insouciance, the recklessness expressed by Jeff and Neils Jorgensen, who persist in maintaining their links to (Vogl) and if, in the end, we take into consideration where their activities are located (in the Old Port), the tribunal has serious motives to reject the request in terms of maintaining public tranquility,” the Régie wrote in its decision. “It seems to us that the public’s confidence in the (tribunal) and its capacity to evaluate the notions of public interest, public security and tranquility risks being seriously undermined.”