About three months ago, shortly after charges were brought, Porter told The Associated Press at his home in the Bahamas that he has stage-four cancer that has spread from his lungs to his liver, and he is too ill to travel. Panama is almost as far away by air from Nassau, where Porter lives, as Montreal.
He is accused of conspiracy, embezzlement, fraud against the government, breach of trust and related crimes under a warrant obtained in late February.
Also charged as co-defendants with Porter are former hospital executive Yanai Elbaz; former CEO Pierre Duhamie and former Executive Vice President Riadh Ben Aissa of Canadian engineering and construction giant SNC-Lavalin Group Inc., and Jeremy Morris, administrator at Bahamian investment company Sierra Asset Management.
Officials allege SNC-Lavalin, which was selected to design and build a new McGill hospital, passed payments in 2009 through Sierra Asset to hospital officials in exchange for a massive $1.3 billion hospital construction contract SNC-Lavalin won in early 2010.
Pamela Porter also faces charges of conspiracy and money laundering that were brought sometime after the original counts were brought against Porter and the SNC Lavalin executives.
Anne Frederick Laurence, head of media relations for the anti-corruption unit, would not elaborate when contacted Tuesday by Crain's about her charges or connection to the investigation.
Both are being held pending an extradition request from the Department of Justice in Canada, which has a bilateral extradition treaty with the Bahamas, senior adviser Carole Saindon told Crain's via email.
None of the charges is related to Porter's time at the DMC. It was not immediately clear how long the extradition process would be, but legal experts have previously told Crain's such an extradition could take several months if Porter fights it.
Porter, 56, originally inherited a two-year operating deficit of nearly $250 million at the DMC when he became CEO, and during his administration the hospital system reduced its workforce by 7,000 to 13,000.
But it went on to lose another $243 million from 2000 to 2003, and government officials began meeting with the DMC after Porter had threatened to close Hutzel Women's Hospital, Detroit Receiving Hospital or the cancer hospital run by the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute due to financial shortfalls that its leaders had tied to uncompensated patient care.
"Ex-DMC CEO Arthur Porter arrested in Panama, faces extradition, criminal charges" was originally published in Crain's Detroit Business.
