The following article was first published in the Montreal Gazette on Monday 11th November, 2019.
You can read the entire article on their website HERE.
Jacques Lamarre, the former head of SNC-Lavalin, authorized the purchase of a $25-million luxury yacht for Saadi Gadhafi, a Quebec Superior Court jury has heard.
The purchase came in 2007 shortly after SNC-Lavalin secured a multimillion-dollar contract in Libya, the jury was told.
Riadh Ben Aissa said he was surprised when he received a phone call from Gadhafi’s lawyer saying the son of former dictator Moammar Ghadafi wanted a boat.
“It was a big ask,” Ben Aissa said on Monday while testifying at the trial of Sami Bebawi, the former executive vice-president of SNC-Lavalin.
Ben Aissa said when he informed Bebawi about the request, it wasn’t approved immediately. “He said: ‘I will call Jacques and get back to you’,” Ben Aissa testified.
At the time, Lamarre was the firm’s chief executive officer.
Bebawi called back and said that Lamarre had approved the purchase of the 150-foot yacht, Ben Aissa said.
“He said Lamarre was in agreement,” Ben Aissa testified.
Ben Aissa contacted a lawyer who worked for Gadhafi to arrange the deal, which he said was paid in six instalments.
Ben Aissa said he was present when the yacht was delivered in 2009, but said he never took a trip on the boat, which was made by U.S. firm Palmer Johnston International.
Before the request was made, the younger Gadhafi had invited Ben Aissa to a boat show in Cannes, France, and the two men spent time admiring the luxury yachts.
Former SNC-Lavalin executive Sami Bebawi, left, arrives with lawyers Annie Emond and Alexandre Bien-Aimé for the start of his trial on Oct. 31. PIERRE OBENDRAUF / MONTREAL GAZETTE
Under cross-examination, Bebawi’s lawyer tried to distance his client’s involvement in the company’s dealings with Libya.
He pointed out that when Lamarre visited Moammar Ghadafi in 2004, it was Ben Aissa who arranged the meeting. Bebawi wasn’t in Libya for the visit and only visited the country on a few occasions, his lawyer Alexandre Bien-Aimé said.
The defence implied that Ben Aissa had total control over the company’s actions in Libya, but the witness insisted that he always consulted Bebawi on major decisions.
“I still reported to Sami Bebawi,” he said.
Apart from the meeting in Cannes, Ben Aissa took trips with Saadi Gadhafi to Italy, where he watched him play soccer. The two men travelled about twice a year for five or six years.
SNC-Lavalin sponsored a soccer club that Saadi Gadhafi played with in Tripoli, the jury heard.
A close working relationship with Saadi Gadhafi helped SNC-Lavalin obtain expensive engineering contracts in that country in the early 2000s, the jury has heard.
The Crown alleges the firm’s relationship with Saadi Gadhafi led to it developing a scheme that involved paying millions in kickbacks and bribes, including to Gadhafi, to ensure it kept receiving lucrative contracts in Libya.
Bebawi, 73, faces charges including fraud and bribing a foreign public official. The Crown says he pocketed upward of $26 million through his role.
Saadi Gadhafi was involved in the firm settling a multimillion-dollar claim it had filed over a money-losing contract in Libya.
Fifty per cent of the claim, the jury has heard, was transferred to a new company Ben Aissa registered in the British Virgin Islands. The money was then divided among those involved in getting the settlement done, including Saadi Gadhafi.
André Beland, a former SNC-Lavalin vice-president, testified that Ben Aissa was under pressure from Lamarre and Bedawi to get the claim, worth between $120 million and $130 million, settled immediately.
In meetings with officials from the project, Béland said Libyan officials refused to budge even though they recognized that some of their employees had been holding up the project, which was to bring underground water from the Sahara desert to coastal cities.
“We were facing a brick wall,” Béland said. “They said no.”
When Ben Aissa informed Bebawi of the bad news, Béland said Bebawi told him: “It’s your project, find a solution.”
A while later, Béland was picked up in a government car and taken to a meeting with Ben Aissa and high-ranking officials with the river authority in the city of Sert. He said he knew the meeting was serious because the driver drove at 150 km/h and was waved through five military checkpoints.
Ben Aissa said they were there to discuss the payment but told Béland that he would not be part of the discussions. Ben Aissa eventually reached a deal and called Lamarre back in Montreal with the good news.
When told of the settlement, Lamarre told Ben Aissa that he wanted to be paid in Deutsche Marks, Béland testified.
The trial continues tomorrow.
