Key player admits taking $10M bribe for Montreal hospital contract

MONTREAL • A man who was key in ensuring the contract to build the McGill University Health Centre superhospital was awarded to a consortium led by SNC Lavalin was taken into custody Monday after he pleaded guilty to four charges related to the fixed bid.

Yanaï Elbaz, 49, winked to his younger brother Yohann as he was handcuffed and taken into custody to begin serving his prison term in the MUHC scandal that also involved the now-deceased former hospital CEO, Arthur Porter.

Quebec’s anti-corruption unit accused Porter of accepting a $22.5-million bribe. The disgraced executive, 59, died in Panamanian custody in 2015 without ever facing trial. He had been detained in Panama at Canada’s request two years earlier.

Quebec authorities have described the hospital bribe scandal as the biggest corruption fraud in Canada’s history.

Elbaz was taken into custody after a Quebec Court judge was presented with a joint recommendation that he serve a 39-month prison term.

Yanaï Elbaz was the assistant director general of planing and real estate management for the MUHC and part of the committee that decided which group would win the contract to build the so-called super hospital.

On Monday, he admitted he took $10 million in bribes by awarding the contract to the group led by SNC Lavalin.

He pleaded guilty to receiving a bribe, breach of trust, conspiring to launder money with Porter and transporting or transferring the proceeds of a crime.

Lawyers in the case revealed that $6 million in Elbaz’s case has been recovered.

The sentencing hearing was complicated by the announcement, by a lawyer representing the MUHC, that the organization is seeking more than $930 million in damages from Elbaz, on top of what it is already seeking through a civil lawsuit.

A lawyer for SNC Lavalin announced the firm is also seeking $22.5 million in damages (the total amount of bribes paid to Porter and Elbaz) as well as another $11.5 million.

The judge who heard Elbaz’s guilty pleas was taken aback by the amounts mentioned and scheduled a hearing for Wednesday to hear arguments on the claims for damages before he officially sentences Elbaz.

As part of the same hearing, the Crown announced that it would not prosecute Yohann Elbaz on related charges and he was acquitted.