Former SNC-Lavalin CEO Now Set for Trial in Bribe Case
Pierre Duhaime, the former CEO of Canadian design-build giant SNC-Lavalin—who resigned from the firm in 2012 in the wake of a contracting bribery scandal in which he was arrested for his alleged role—is now set for a February trial start in Quebec Superior Court. The case relates to payoffs on one project, a multibillion-dollar Montreal hospital on which the firm led the public-private construction consortium.
According to the Montreal Gazette, Duhaime, 64, is the final former executive of SNC-Lavalin and of the McGill University Health Centre to be tried in the bribery scandal related to a $1.3-billion hospital project. His trial could last four months.
Duhaime faces charges of fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud and using forged documents.
Yanai Elbaz, the hospital’s former assistant director general of planning and real estate management, pleaded guilty on Nov. 26 to influence peddling, money laundering and other charges related to a $10-million bribe he accepted from former SNC-Lavalin executives to help the firm win the job. He and the hospital’s former CEO, who died abroad before he could be extradited and tried, allegedly set up shell companies to hide $22.5 million in bribes.
The court will determine later this month the amount of damages Elbaz must pay the hospital.
Riadh Ben Aissa, a former SNC-Lavalin vice president, pleaded guilty in July to charges of using false documents in the scheme and was sentenced to 51 months in prison.
A separate month-long hearing before Court of Quebec Judge Claude Leblond—to decide if SNC-Lavalin should face a criminal trial on pending federal corporate charges linked to former executives’ alleged bribes on Libya contracts—was set to end on Nov. 30, with a ruling not expectedset until spring.
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