Arthur Porter‘s former right-hand man, Yanaï Elbaz, will not have to pay damages for having received a $10-million bribe when the contract for the McGill University Health Centre’s so-called superhospital was awarded to SNC-Lavalin.
Quebec Court Judge Claude Leblond made his decision on the damages Monday morning. He ruled that a civil court, and not criminal court, is the more appropriate forum for such a matter. Elbaz, 49, is currently named in two significant lawsuits related to how the contract was tainted by his and Porter’s decision to accept bribes.
At the end of the hearing on Monday, Lalonde-Tardif informed the court that the Crown plans to confiscate money held in bank accounts (frozen in Switzerland) and a piece of real estate from Elbaz at a future court date. The confiscations are expected to total $6 million, which means the Crown has yet to trace roughly $4 million of the money Elbaz pocketed from the bribe.
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