Canadian fraud suspects wife wants special bail deal

WHILE a Canadian fraud suspect sits in a Panama jail cell  awaiting a decision on his opposition to an extradition request, His wife is trying to get Canadian courts to give her a special bail deal. 

Pamela Mattock Porter was allegedly involved in a scheme to rig the contract for a McGill University super hospitalin Montreal,  and is awaiting trial on money-laundering and conspiracy charges.

On the same day temperatures in Montreal dipped to their lowest levels in months, Friday December 13, Mattock Porter presented a motion seeking permission to reside in sunny Florida while the money laundering charges she faces are pending reports the Montreal Gazette
Mattock Porter, 53, is charged alongside her husband Arthur Porter, 57, the former director of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC). The funds they are charged with laundering allegedly came from more than $22 million in bribes paid to Porter to secure the contract to construct the MUHC’s $1.3-billion superhospital.
Four other men, including two executives at engineering giant SNC-Lavalin, also stand charged in the alleged bid-rigging scheme.
Until earlier this year, SNC-Lavalin had offices in Panama, and was working on the development of the Minera Panama copper mine. When Minera’s parent company was taken over by First Quantum, a $126 million  contract was canceled.
Mattock Porter and her husband were arrested in Panama on May 26. But, unlike her husband, Mattock Porter decided not to challenge extradition to Canada. After being returned to Montreal in police custody she was initially denied bail. But she managed to secure release on appeal in Quebec’s Superior Court in August on condition that she remain in Quebec while her case is pending, among other requirements.
Now Mattock Porter is seeking permission to leave the province and the country.
According to a motion presented before Superior Court Justice Réjean Paul at the Montreal courthouse on Friday, Mattock Porter “seeks to have her conditions reviewed as to allow her to travel to and reside in the State of Florida” with her daughter. An affidavit filed as part of the motion states that Mattock Porter intends to reside at a small house in Clearwater, Fla.
Mattock Porter is willing to surrender her passport to Canadian authorities upon her arrival in the U.S., her motion states.
The motion notes that she will have to wait until March 2015 for the preliminary inquiry, the next stage in the money laundering case.
“Therefore the condition forbidding the applicant from leaving the province of Quebec and other relevant conditions will deprive the applicant of her family for the next couple of years,” the motion states. She also notes that Jeremy Morris, a Bahamian resident alleged to be the principal administrator in a company created to funnel the funds in question, was allowed to reside in the Bahamas when he was granted bail in March.
Porter remains incarcerated in Panama and is challenging Canada’s extradition request. His lawyer recently told The Gazette a decision, by a Panamanian court, could come any time between mid-December and February.