Montreal Mayor, Michael Applebaum, Arrested on Charges of Fraud

Michael Applebaum, the brand new mayor of Montreal, has just been arrested. The city official is being charged with fraud.

Applebaum became mayor in November 2012, when Gérald Tremblay, his predecessor, resigned due to a scandal. Mr. Tremblay, it was alleged, received illegal campaign contributions and allowed corruption to occur when it would benefit his own political party.

Mr. Applebaum's charges are slightly more numerous. There are 14 of them, in fact.

All charges are linked to two separate real estate transactions that occurred within the last five years.

Robert Lafreniere, head of Quebec's anti-corruption unit, issued a statement to the press:

"No one is above the law. If there are other people who committed reprehensible acts, they can be sure that we will be on their case."

Sylvain Gaudreault, Quebec's municipal affairs minister, also committed on the recent developments, asking Mr. Applebaum to step aside:

"I am calling on Mr. Applebaum to take his responsibilities. The best thing to do in this context is to leave his post."

As far as Canadian mayors go, Mr. Applebaum comes across as relatively tame. But to be fair, he has some pretty stiff competition.

Rob Ford, Toronto's Mayor, seems to be the fan favorite. The extremely polarizing official has been in the spotlight for quite some time now.

It was alleged that Mr. Ford was caught on video smoking crack. Two separate news outlets confirmed the contents of the tape, however, it has yet to surface.

Gawker actually began a Kickstarter knock-off to crowdsource the $200,000 the video's owner asked for. It was called "Crackstarter."

The effort succeeded in raising the funds, however the video never surfaced. Gawker was unable to contact the source again.