Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Former native health agency boss charged with fraud, theft of $1M
OTTAWA -- The former head of a Winnipeg-based native health care agency is now facing charges of theft and fraud of over $1 million, four years after Ottawa cut off the agency's funding after finding it spent millions on health spas, real estate and trips to exotic locations.
Daryl Joseph Cote, 53, of Winnipeg, was arrested this week by the RCMP and charged with two counts of theft over $5,000 and two counts of fraud over $5,000. Cote is alleged to have stolen $1,028,050 from Anishinaabe Mino-Ayaawin Inc. (AMA) between Oct. 1, 1999 and March 31, 2004. He is also alleged to have stolen $310,150 from the Dauphin River First Nation, of which he used to be the co-manager.
The charges have not been proven in court and Cote is presumed innocent unless convicted.
Health Canada is continuing to try to recoup some of the $6.4 million funding believed to have been stolen or improperly spent by AMA. A call to the Dauphin River chief was not returned Wednesday.
The RCMP began investigating Cote in February 2005, the same month Health Canada terminated its funding arrangement with AMA.
Ottawa gave AMA almost $57 million between 1997 and 2005, and continued to fund the agency for years, even though reviews and audits began turning up trouble as early as 1998.
Cote left AMA in 2004 and sued the company for breach of contract. AMA, in return, sued Cote in 2005, alleging he was involved in kickback schemes and improperly awarding contracts to Dasamead, his consulting company.
A federal audit into AMA's questionable spending was finally released in August 2007, and showed the organization misspent 11 per cent of the $56.9 million it received from Health Canada between 1997 and 2005, with money going to everything from spa pedicures to Hawaiian vacations and staff retreats in the Dominican Republic.
The agency was one of 16 pilot projects across the country to put more control over health services into the hands of native-run organizations.
One of the triggers for investigating AMA was that agreements with AMA were signed off by former assistant deputy health minister Paul Cochrane.
Cochrane was a central figure in an RCMP investigation into the practises of the Manitoba offices of the First Nations and Inuit Health Branch related to a similar scandal at the Virginia Fontaine treatment centre in Sagkeeng. Cochrane was sentenced to a year in prison for fraud and theft for receiving kickbacks in exchange for funneling money to the treatment centre.
AMA's mandate was to oversee community nursing stations and provide non-insured benefits like mental health counseling, dental, vision care and pharmacare to 7,500 aboriginal residents living on and off-reserve in Manitoba's Interlake.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 12, 2009 A4
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