$1.3 billion Montreal health scandal suspect arrested in Panama

ARTHUR PORTER, a man accused of being at the heart of a scandal involving the $1.3 billion McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) mega-hospital project in Montreal, has been arrested in Panama.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) said Porter is facing multiple charges including fraud, conspiracy to commit government fraud, abuse of trust, secret commissions and laundering the proceeds of a crime.

His wife, Pamela, was also arrested. She is facing charges for laundering the proceeds of a crime and for conspiracy.
Quebec anti-corruption squad UPAC said their arrests were the result of an international collaboration involving the RCMP, Interpol and Quebec provincial police.
Porter resigned as CEO of the MUHC in late 2011 amid allegations of mismanaging billion-dollar budgets and a $22.5-million fraud against the hospital that happened on his watch.
Last February, UPAC issued warrants for five men suspected of conspiring to defraud the MUHC: Porter, former MUHC director Yanai Elbaz, former CEO of SNC-Lavalin Pierre Duhaime, former SNC-Lavalin employee Riadh Ben Aissa and the still relatively unknown Jeremy Morris.
A sixth man, Yohann Elbaz, was arrested last April on similar charges.
MUHC spokesman Ian Popple declined to comment on the extent of the case, saying only that "this is a police matter. Justice is following its course. The MUHC continues to co-operate with the authorities."
Porter left the MUHC less than a month after he resigned as chair of the Security Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC), which monitors the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), after his ties to a controversial lobbyist, became public.
The radiation oncologist had been treating himself for terminal lung cancer in Nassau, Bahamas.