RCMP raids Lion Electric headquarters in connection with investment fraud case

RCMP raids Lion Electric headquarters
RCMP raids Lion Electric headquarters
Lion Electric school buses in the garage at the Autobus Beaconsfield-Scolaire Élite depot in Montreal, Friday, Sept. 12, 2025, after the government pulled the electric buses off the roads in the province following a fire.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes
Writer

The RCMP says it raided electric bus maker Lion Electric's headquarters north of Montreal on Wednesday morning in connection with an investment fraud case.

RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Martina Pillarova says dozens of officers are scouring the premises in Saint-Jérôme, Que., in a search that could last several days, but that no charges or arrests are expected at the moment.

She says police received complaints from more than a hundred investors and launched an investigation in February 2025.

Pillarova says the operation relates to the company's past activities, with no connection to its new owner.

Quebec's financial regulator said last week it was imposing a $1.1-million penalty on Claude Roy, an investor with ties to Lion, after he admitted to selling company shares in the six weeks before it went into bankruptcy protection in December 2024, avoiding nearly $800,000 in losses.

Lion began to churn out hundreds of electric school buses per year as well as some battery-powered trucks after going public in 2021, but it struggled to scale up further and wound up selling in 2025 for a fraction of its former value, with the Quebec government losing its $140-million investment.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2026.

Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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