The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec has suspended Martine Gaudreault, a vice-president at real estate lender OtéraCapital, while it conducts an investigation into “certain allegations,” it said in a statement.

On Tuesday,Le Journal de Montréalreported that Gaudreault’s partner, Alain Cormier, the president of alternative lender and real estate management company Bancan, has done business with people linked to alleged members of the Montreal Mafia.

The Gazette has been able to independently verify one of the allegations — that a numbered company owned by Cormier and a numbered company owned by Leonardo Rizzuto and Giovanna Cammalleri, the son and wife of former Mafia boss Vito Rizzuto, were among the owners of another numbered company.

That company appears to have ceased operations in 2012.

On Tuesday, Bancan’s website — which had listed properties available for rent as well as information about its mortgage lending offerings as recently as the day before — had been largely wiped of content.

Among the properties with availabilities listed on Bancan’s site on Monday, was 7010-7012 St-Laurent Blvd., a commercial property in Little Italy. It is owned by a numbered company run by Cormier and Gaudreault.

At least four other properties that appeared on the Bancan site are owned by a numbered company whose sole listed director is Gaudreault. Cormier was previously a director of the company.

Bancan’s page on LinkedIn also appears to have been recently deleted. Cormier and Gaudreault’s personal pages on the site appear to have recently been taken offline.

The Caisse said it is taking the allegations “very seriously, because they concern issues of integrity.”

The pension fund manager said the investigation will be conducted by an external lawyer and that the results of the investigation will be made public. Gaudreault will be suspended until the investigation is complete.

Gaudreault has been a vice-president at Otéra since 2010. She is in charge of all commercial real estate lending in Quebec and Eastern Canada, according to Otéra’s website.

Otéra Capital’s investment portfolio was worth $12 billion in 2017.

The Caisse did not respond to a request for further comment on Tuesday afternoon.