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Monday 30 April 2012

Swiss arrest former SNC-Lavalin executive for alleged corruption

In a major strike against alleged corruption involving Canadian construction giant SNC-Lavalin in North Africa, Swiss authorities have arrested former top executive Riadh Ben Aïssa, who parted ways with the company last February. The allegations concern “corruption, fraud and money laundering related to business dealings conducted in North Africa,” Jacqueline Buhlmann of Switzerland’s federal prosecution agency, the Office of the Attorney General, confirmed to the Toronto Star. Word of the arrest of Ben Aïssa, who had close ties to the regime of former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi and especially his son Saadi, comes after the RCMP, accompanied by a Swiss investigator, raided the head office of the company in Montreal on April 13. The search took place at the request of Swiss authorities. A spokesperson for SNC-Lavalin said Sunday that the company is aware of Ben Aïssa’s arrest but has no specific details of his status. “If crimes have been committed by Mr. Ben Aïssa or any other former employee, the company believes that they should be held accountable,” Leslie Quinton said in a statement. Buhlmann indicated that the arrest is the result of a criminal investigation that began as far back as May 2011. Ben Aïssa is currently in prison. He has reportedly been held since mid-April. SNC-Lavalin’s business dealings in Libya have become a major ethical and financial crisis for the company, which has seen its stock price plummet in recent months. The company’s chief executive officer was forced out last March on the same day a damning internal review was released, which focused on $56 million in missing payments. It was revealed that Pierre Duhaime had breached the company’s code of ethics in approving the payments without authorization after the chief financial officer had rejected them. The review was prompted by improper payments allegedly made by Ben Aïssa to commercial agents. The company refused to provide details on the projects, but said it “believed” the payments weren’t related to Libya. The review also did not specify how the payments were made, through which banks, or where. Switzerland is the world’s largest offshore financial centre. Duhaime was forced out following the departures in February of Ben Aïssa, the executive vice-president of construction, and Stéphane Roy, the company controller. Ben Aïssa was “believed to have direct and significant knowledge about most of the investigated transactions,” but did not co-operate with the internal investigation on the advice of his lawyer, the review stated. Clouding the alleged improper business dealings is the connection Ben Aïssa and Roy have with Ontario consultant Cynthia Vanier, who sits in a Mexican prison. Roy travelled to Mexico City last fall to meet with Vanier, who was at the same moment arrested by Mexican police in connection with an alleged attempt to spirit Saadi out of Libya during that country’s revolution, and smuggle him to Mexico. Vanier, who denies any connection to a Mexico-related plot, had been previously hired by the SNC executives to complete a “fact-finding” mission in Libya to determine, among other things, how the company could securely re-establish its business interests there. She produced a report widely seen as very pro-regime, which was praised by Roy. SNC at first denied any involvement with Vanier. It now pleads ignorance, saying that any work mandates Vanier performed for the company “may have been outside the permitted scope of authority of those who assigned them.” Roy is also the subject of a probe by the RCMP commercial crimes section, according to a CBC report. Ben Aïssa, a native of Tunisia, began his career at SNC-Lavalin in 1985 and quickly gained a reputation for his ability to obtain contracts in the Middle East. In 2002, he was named senior vice-president for the Middle East and North Africa, and general manager of the country’s Libyan office. Five years later he was promoted to lead the company’s lucrative construction division. During that time Ben Aïssa, who worked out of the company’s offices in Montreal and Tunis, helped secure huge Libyan contracts worth billions, including, among others, ones for a new airport for Benghazi and a new prison. Ben Aïssa developed a close relationship with two of Gadhafi’s sons, including Saadi. SNC also covered Saadi’s expenses during a lavish trip he made to Canada in 2008. After he left the company, Ben Aïssa denied he’d been forced to resign, as the company suggested, and threatened to sue. The company is co-operating with authorities to “obtain the answers required about situations concerning ex-employees as expeditiously as possible,” Quinton added in her statement. Neither Ben Aïssa’s Montreal spokesperson nor his lawyers returned requests for comment.

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