Former SNC-Lavalin CEO arrested
03 December 2012
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Former SNC-Lavalin CEO Pierre Duhaime has been arrested in Montreal, Canada on charges of fraud. Mr Duhaime resigned as CEO of the Canadian contractor in March, following revelations that he signed-off on a series of suspect payments in Libya.
His arrest last week is said to be in connection with these payments, which were requested by fellow SNC-Lavalin executive Ben Aissa. Mr Aissa has been held in prison in Switzerland since April on suspicion of corruption, fraud and money laundering in Libya.
Montreal police have filed criminal charges against both Mr Duhaime and Mr Aissa in relations to the Libyan suspect payments scandal.
In addition, questions have been raised over the multi-billion Dollar contract to build McGill University Hospital in Montreal, Canada. The charges against Mr Duhaime and Mr Aissa on this project allege the two conspired to issue false documents and defraud the client on this scheme.
A statement from SNC-Lavalin said, “We have been informed of the arrest of Pierre Duhaime. As we have stated repeatedly, SNC-Lavalin has and will continue to cooperate fully with all authorities who request our assistance. We voluntarily turned over information that we have to local and other authorities for them to take any actions that they may consider appropriate.”