MONTREAL – Anti-corruption police in Quebec have arrested a sixth person sought in the $22.5 million alleged fraud stemming from the awarding of a Montreal superhospital contract.
St-Clair Martin Armitage will appear in a Montreal courtroom on Wednesday after turning himself in to police at the airport.
The British national had been sought by the province’s anti-corruption unit, known as UPAC, since May 8 in connection with the awarding of the contract to build the $1.3 billion McGill University Health Centre.
The lucrative contract, finalized in 2010, is the subject of an alleged fraud involving former hospital officials and former executives with Quebec engineering giant SNC-Lavalin.
Ex-SNC-Lavalin executives are accused of funnelling money to former McGill hospital officials Arthur Porter and Yanai Elbaz in exchange for the contract.
READ MORE: Former McGill hospital executive gets $100,000 bail in massive fraud case
Armitage was placed under arrest on Tuesday after arriving on a plane from England.
Police said he’ll appear in court on Wednesday – the sixth of eight people to appear before a judge in connection with the case.
He’s facing charges similar to the others accused – conspiracy to commit fraud, fraud and breach of trust.
Authorities are still working to return controversial former hospital boss Arthur Porter and former SNC-Lavalin executive Riadh Ben Aissa to Canada.
Ben Aissa remains detained in Switzerland on separate charges of corruption, fraud and money-laundering in North Africa.
Porter is challenging extradition to Canada from a Panamanian prison.
Others who have already been charged are former SNC-Lavalin president Pierre Duhaime; Elbaz and his brother Yohann; Pamela Porter, Arthur Porter’s wife; and Jeremy Morris, the administrator of a Bahamas-based investment company Sierra Asset Management.
Armitage was hired by the McGill hospital authority as an expert on private-public partnerships.
The awarding of the contract was also the subject of a lengthy examination by Quebec’s corruption inquiry earlier this year.
Comments