Lino Saputo

Billionaire chese maker Emmanuele "Lino" Saputo Sr., 73, is among the handful of richest Quebeckers, as he's worth $2.5 billion or so. 

   His company, Saputo, is Canada's biggest cheese maker and they are known for championing the cause of soccer in Montreal, alas snubbing the much better-loved sport of base-a-ball-a. Saputo recently laid off 120 workers in Ontario due to rising competition - ie: lower sales. 

   He has been dogged by the occasional slur against his company due to their glorious Italian heritage.    He is currently suing five defendants for libel as they reported that he might have been named in some money laundering scandal. 

   The interesting thing here is that his lawyers tried to get the original unlawyered version of newspaper article as evidence and a few weeks ago a judge ordered that he had no right to such a thing. 

   In 1972-73 Saputo had his hands full with similar controversies, including charges that his cheese factory was unsanitary (no soap or towels in the bathroom, a charge vigorously disputed) and he attempted to sue a police officer named Tony Carocchia and others for telling media that Saputo regularly hung out with known mobsters. 

   Not sure if this is the same Tony Carocchia that played bass in Pagliaro's earliest band. For an extra bonus chuckle, here's an unrelated court case in which a Saputo executive was accused of making threats against a neighbour, which he vigorously and elaborately attempted to deny.