National Post (National Edition)
Former manager jailed for bribe
MONTREAL • A former hospital manager who pocketed a $10-million bribe in return for helping Snc-lavalin win a Montreal hospitalbuilding contract has been sentenced to 39 months in prison.
Quebec court Judge Claude Leblond sentenced Yanai Elbaz on Monday in Montreal in a case that has been described as the greatest corruption fraud in Canadian history.
With time served factored into the sentence, Elbaz was left with a 38-month prison term and will be eligible for full parole in a little more than a year.
In an agreed statement of facts tied to Elbaz’s plea, the former MUHC manager admitted to giving privileged information to engineering firm Snc-lavalin to help its submission for the contract to build a massive hospital complex in west-end Montreal.
Elbaz, who has been detained since his Nov. 26 guilty plea, also admitted to denigrating SNC’S competitors in front of the hospital’s selection committee.
Elbaz and Arthur Porter, the EX-CEO of the MUHC who died a fugitive in Panamanian custody in 2015, received a total of $22.5 million to rig the bidding process to favour Snc-lavalin, the statement of facts said.
The judge rejected an argument from the Mcgill University Health Centre, which claimed it was entitled to compensation as a victim of the fraud. He ruled the question should be dealt with through civil proceedings.
Elbaz, 49, is currently named in two significant lawsuits related to how the contract was tainted by his and Porter’s decision to accept bribes. Snc-lavalin Group Inc., the leader of a consortium that won the contract, is suing Elbaz, his brother Yohann, and two of its own executives for $47 million. The MUHC is suing Elbaz, Porter’s estate and former Snc-lavalin executive Riadh Ben Aissa for $30 million.
In his decision, Leblond noted that the MUHC’S request for damages was not part of the common suggestion on Elbaz’s sentence that was presented to him on Nov. 26 by defence lawyer Nadine Touma and prosecutor Claudie Lalonde-tardif. The judge cited jurisprudence that established the state can’t seek damages after a common suggestion on a sentence has been made unless it is for a “modest sum.”
The MUHC was seeking $934 million in damages from Elbaz.