Dr Arthur Porter a wanted man in Canada

As of Wednesday, February 27, 2013

A BAHAMAS-based cancer chief is now a wanted man in Canada after a warrant was issued for his arrest.

Quebec's anti-corruption task force issued the arrest warrant for Dr Arthur Porter and four other men embroiled in allegations of fraud involving Montreal's English-language hospital network.

Dr Porter is managing director of the Cancer Centre of the Bahamas and was contracted to lead the Bahamas' national task force on stem cell therapy.

He is principally responsible for the Cancer Centre of the Bahamas becoming the only American College of Radiation Oncology (ACRO)-accredited Centre in the Caribbean and this hemisphere outside of North America. Opened in 2004, the centre, which provides comprehensive oncology services, received its second accreditation in 2010.

Dr Porter, who resigned from the McGill University Health Centre network in 2011 and is currently living in the Bahamas, is wanted by the Canadians on criminal charges including fraud, conspiracy, defrauding the government, breach of trust and laundering the proceeds of crime.

Another former network administrator, Yanai Elbaz, is wanted on the same charges.

Two high-profile former executives of Canadian engineering firm SNC-Lavalin, former CEO Pierre Duhaime and former construction head Riadh Ben Aïssa, arecharged with fraud, conspiracy and paying bribes.