Former McGill hospital executive gets $100,000 bail in massive fraud case

Enlarge Image

Yanai Elbaz leaves the Montreal courthouse in Montreal Thursday, February 28, 2013 where he appeared on charges of fraud. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes.

MONTREAL - One of the men charged with fraud in the Montreal superhospital project has been freed on $100,000 bail, awaiting his criminal case.

Former Montreal hospital executive Yanai Elbaz appeared briefly in a Montreal courtroom today to be formally charged with fraud in the construction of the $1.3 billion McGill University Health Centre, one of Canada's biggest infrastructure projects.

Elbaz is facing charges along with four other co-accused: former SNC-Lavalin senior executives Pierre Duhaime and Riadh Ben Aissa; former McGill hospital director-general Arthur Porter; and Jeremy Morris, the administrator of a Bahamas-based investment company.

Elbaz was Porter's right-hand man and served as the director of redevelopment, planning and real estate management for the hospital.

Porter left the hospital in 2011 after reports of questionable business dealings began to emerge.

Elbaz left the MUHC himself to go into consulting in 2011. His name has surfaced during Quebec's corruption inquiry due to meals he allegedly had at an exclusive Montreal club. Elbaz was frequently invited for meals at the club by Paolo Catania, a Quebec construction magnate.

Neither Elbaz or Catania have testified at the inquiry.

Procedures have been launched to bring three of the accused back to Canada, while Duhaime already faces criminal charges in a related case.

As for Elbaz, he is charged with fraud; conspiracy to commit fraud; fraud against the government; embezzlement; secret commissions and laundering the proceeds of crime.

Elbaz was arrested on Wednesday and released Thursday after his father put up $100,000 bail and another person made a $50,000 cash deposit with the court.

Elbaz is not permitted to speak to a long list of people — including his co-accused, as well as a lengthy list of SNC-Lavalin and McGill University Health Centre employees who could be witnesses.

He is also forbidden from going to either the building that houses the offices of the multinational engineering firm or to those of the McGill hospital administration.

Elbaz was ordered to hand over his passport, cannot leave Canada and must report to Quebec provincial police headquarters every Friday.

"Those are conditions we believed were necessary to secure his appearances in court," said Crown attorney Marie-Helene Giroux.

She said that one of the co-accused, ex-SNC-Lavalin boss Duhaime, was also arrested Thursday by Quebec's anti-corruption squad and released. Duhaime had been sought on a modified warrant that didn't require him to appear in court Thursday.

"Mr. Duhaime was given a date of May 23 which corresponds to a date he was given on the original charges," Giroux said. Duhaime and Ben Aissa are charged separately in another fraud case involving the hospital contract.

Giroux said authorities are taking necessary steps to have Ben Aissa, Porter and Morris brought to Canada to face charges.

Porter, who is in the Bahamas, says that he is battling an aggressive cancer and is too ill to make the trip to Canada.

Elbaz will be represented by Pierre Poupart, a famous Quebec defence attorney.

He is best known recently for having successfully defended Guy Turcotte, a former cardiologist who had been charged with two counts of first-degree murder of his children but was found not criminally responsible.

Poupart did not comment as he left the courtroom.

Elbaz is back in court May 23, the same day as Duhaime.