Canadian authorities want to extradite Dr. Arthur Porter, managing director of The Cancer Centre in The Bahamas, and his wife Pamela from Panama after they were arrested there on Monday.
Quebec’s anti-corruption unit Press Liaison Anne-Frédérick Laurence said authorities want to charge Pamela Porter with laundering proceeds of crime and conspiracy.
They were arrested months after Canadian authorities issued an arrest warrant for Porter.
“These arrests…could not have been achieved without the collaboration of the department of investigations into corruption of the Sûreté du Québec, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and Interpol,” read a statement from the anti-corruption unit posted on its website.
Porter, along with Yanai Elbaz, Jeremy Morris, a Bahamian resident, Riadh Ben Aissa and Pierre Duhaime, are wanted in connection with 24 counts of fraud, said Laurence.
Porter is wanted in connection with fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud, fraud against the government, embezzlement, breach of trust, secret commissions and laundering proceeds of crime, according to Laurence.
To date, Canadian authorities have arrested Elbaz, his brother Yohann Elbaz, Morris, and Duhaime.
Ben Aissa is currently in jail in Switzerland, said Laurence.
The men are wanted in connection with fraud charges stemming from the construction of a $1.3 billion hospital project in Canada.
Porter was CEO of McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) from 2004 to 2011.
Last year, Minister of Health Dr. Perry Gomez appointed Porter chairman of the government’s stem cell research task force.
Porter, who said he was diagnosed with cancer in January, is an oncologist. He is a permanent resident of The Bahamas and has a home at Old Fort Bay.
He told The Nassau Guardian in March he was too weak to travel and if police wanted to speak with him, they should fly to The Bahamas.
By: Travis Cartwright-Carroll
The Nassau Guardian
