Sierra Leonean born entrepreneur, historian and
physician – Dr. Arthur Porter is one of president
Koroma’s most trusted and globally connected movers
and shakers.
He is one of the few Sierra Leoneans decorated with
the honorific title - "His Excellency, Ambassador
Plenipotentiary of Republic of Sierra Leone" by
president Koroma.
Dr. Porter is the full-time chief executive of one of
Canada's largest public health-care providers,
McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), which has
almost 12,000 employees. He is also an Air Canada
director and sits on myriad corporate boards in
Canada and abroad.
In his article: “SPY watchdog's 'peculiar deal'”
this is what Brian Hutchison had to say:
The head of Canada's spy review board wired $200,000
in personal funds to a notorious international
lobbyist in a questionable aid-for infrastructure
deal in Africa, the National Post has learned.
Arthur Porter, the federally appointed chairman of
Canada's Security and Intelligence Review Committee
(SIRC), described in three interviews how he
directed cash from a foreign bank account to Ari
Ben-Menashe, a jet-setting, Montreal-based
businessman who often acts as a middleman in
negotiations between the Russian Federation and
developing countries.
"This is a file that I've tried to put in the very
back recesses of my mind," Dr. Porter told the
National Post, in response to his dealings with Mr.
Ben-Menashe. "Maybe it was a hoax," he added. "It
was a little too skatey.... It was not traditional
business as I understand it. It was a peculiar
deal."
And precarious business for a man in, as he says,
"sensitive positions." Dr. Porter was appointed to
SIRC's five-member committee by Canada's Privy
Council Office in 2008, on the recommendation of the
Prime Minister's Office. He was made its chairman
last year. An oncologist and hospital administrator
by profession, he is one of only two physicians ever
to be appointed to SIRC's committee, which
historically has been dominated by former
politicians.
The committee reviews on a regular basis the
activities of Canada's spy agency, the Canadian
Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), and examines
complaints made against it. According to SIRC, its
committee members have "access to all information
held by CSIS, no matter how highly classified that
information may be," with the exception of federal
Cabinet secrets.
In June 2010, Dr. Porter signed a consultancy
agreement prepared by Mr. Ben-Menashe and his
privately owned, Montreal-based company, Dickens &
Madson (Canada) Inc.
Mr. Ben-Menashe |
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Dr. Porter signed on behalf of his own company, Africa
Infrastructure Group (AIG), which is one of numerous
private "entities" he says he maintains in his
native Sierra Leone and in other countries.
The contract obliged Mr. Ben-Menashe to secure a
US$120-million grant from Russia "for infrastructure
development in Sierra Leone managed by the Africa
Infrastructure Group." Dickens & Madson also agreed
to "use our best efforts to secure an opportunity
for Sierra Leone to be considered as a site for the
development of new port facilities for the use of
the Russian Federation for non-military purposes."
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With his signature, Dr. Porter promised to notify
Sierra Leonean President Ernest Koroma of the
arrangement and to obtain his consent. He also
agreed to wire a $200,000 payment to Dickens &
Madson for its services as intermediary. Dr. Porter
made the payment from an account he holds in Florida
to Mr. Ben-Menashe's busy JPMorgan Chase account in
New York.
Wesley Wark, a specialist in the history of
intelligence services and national security policy
at the University of Toronto, says Dr. Porter's
dealings with Mr. Ben-Menashe should raise concerns
in the federal government. Prof. Wark said Dr.
Porter may have put himself in a conflict of
interest, by working with an international lobbyist
on private business dealings outside of Canada.
"There should be very close government scrutiny of
this activity or a request for a temporary
suspension of such activities," Prof. Wark said.
"There is at least an appearance of a conflict of
interest, and there is the potential reality of a
conflict of interest."
Paule Gauthier, who was SIRC chairman from 1996 to
2005, said Monday that a person in that position who
was conducting such business would "certainly" have
to disclose it "to the place where he was appointed.
To the Prime Minister's Office."
The National Post asked the Prime Minister's Office
and the Privy Council Office to explain what vetting
and disclosure requirements it places on SIRC
appointments, and to explain whether Dr. Porter has
made all appropriate disclosures. The PMO did not
respond. PCO spokesman Raymond Rivet said in an
email Monday that Dr. Porter "is subject to the
Conflict of Interest Act, the Lobbying Act and the
Ethical and Political Activity Guidelines for Public
Office Holders."
Dr. Porter would "also have undergone a background
check which would have included a check by the RCMP
of police records, a security assessment by CSIS
pursuant to Section 13 of the CSIS Act, a check with
the CRA [Canada Revenue Agency] and a check with the
Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy."
Dr. Porter could recall only that his curriculum vitae
was reviewed in the PCO prior to his 2008
appointment to SIRC and that staff there "asked me
lots of questions - I believe I've disclosed
everything. They know what I do."
The $120-million that he had expected to come from
Russia never materialized, he added. His $200,000
payment to Mr. Ben-Menashe was refunded. The two men
are completely at odds over why their deal failed.
Mr. Ben-Menashe says he now has other, bigger
problems. Since August, four Canadian banks have
declared they no longer want his business and will
close his accounts. Last week, he received a letter
from Caisse Desjardins du Québec that terminated
their relationship.
In the letter, the bank explained it "has information
that you are a politically exposed foreign person
within the meaning of the Proceeds of Crime and
Terrorist Financing Act. As well, the [Caisse] was
informed of your involvement in the activities of
arms trafficking."
Mr. Ben-Menashe says the letter made him feel "sick
and abused." He says he has done nothing wrong. He
is a Canadian citizen and has not been accused of
breaking any laws. A lawyer representing him on the
banking troubles, Neil Peden, says that he's "never
encountered anything like this before."
Mr. Ben-Menashe has no criminal record, but he does
have a controversial past. One needn't be chairman
of Canada's spy review committee to discover that.
A former Israeli government employee, Mr. Ben-Menashe
was arrested in the United States in 1989 and
charged with illegally attempting to sell three
military transport airplanes to Iran. He went to
trial and was acquitted in 1990; a jury believed his
account, that he had simply acted on orders from his
government in Israel to attempt the aircraft sale.
He then wrote a memoir called Profits of War, filled
with accounts of international espionage and
conspiracies he says he either participated in or
was privy to.
"This is the book the Israelis tried to stop, written
by the man they said didn't exist - the book that
the CIA tried to sabotage," reads the book's
provocative dust cover. By 1993, Mr. Ben-Menashe had
married a Canadian woman and was settled in
Montreal, where he set up his lobbying firm, Dickens
& Madson.
According to Canadian government correspondence
obtained via access to information requests, Mr.
Ben-Menashe began briefing Department of Foreign
Affairs (DFAIT) officials on international
machinations. He eventually hired one of his DFAIT
contacts, an intelligence specialist, to assist in
his Dickens & Madson business.
He is no stranger to National Post readers; this
newspaper has described many of Mr. Ben-Menashe's
contracts and relationships, including his
multimillion-dollar consultancy deals with
Zimbabwean strongman Robert Mugabe.
In one notorious episode, Mr. Ben-Menashe met in his
Montreal office with then-Zimbabwean opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai and recorded him
purportedly plotting to assassinate the aging
dictator. Mr. Tsvangirai was charged with treason in
Zimbabwe and put on trial. It was the talk of
Africa, and Mr. Ben-Menashe was the prosecution's
star witness.
The trial ended with Mr. Tsvangirai's acquittal. Mr.
Ben-Menashe resumed his exotic consulting activities
from his home base in Montreal.
Arthur Porter insists he knew nothing about Ari
Ben-Menashe and his controversial past when they met
for the first time last year. "I didn't check him
out, obviously, as thoroughly as I should have," Dr.
Porter said in an interview on Saturday. "I was
introduced to him by a guy whom I trusted."
That person is Hermann Josef Hermanns, another
Montrealer. Like his friend Dr. Porter, Mr. Hermanns
also keeps a residence in the Bahamas, where he
represents a Swiss-based bank, Compagnie Bancaire
Helvétique. Dr. Porter initially told the National
Post he had no knowledge of such a bank, but later
acknowledged that some of his own private companies
are " associated" with it.
Among other interests, Dr. Porter and his family have
mining stakes in Sierra Leone, a country battered by
years of war and corruption. It is also known for
its mineral deposits, especially diamonds and gold.
Dr. Porter insisted on holding his first meeting with
Mr. Ben-Menashe in his office in downtown Montreal.
Besides serving as chairman of SIRC, Dr. Porter is
the full-time chief executive of one of Canada's
largest public health-care providers, McGill
University Health Centre (MUHC), which has almost
12,000 employees.
He is also an Air Canada director and sits on myriad
corporate boards in Canada and abroad. He runs a
cancer clinic in Bahamas and makes regular trips to
his native Sierra Leone, where, he says, he has
direct access to political leaders, including its
President, Mr. Koroma.
Indeed, Mr. Koroma recently conferred upon Dr. Porter
an extraordinary title: "His Excellency, Ambassador
Plenipotentiary, Republic of Sierra Leone." Dr.
Porter has used the designation in written
correspondence; his title appears on personal
letterhead, under the Sierra Leonean coat of arms.
Ambassador Plenipotentiary is an exceedingly rare
title defined as someone with full powers of a head
of state.
Dr. Porter says that in his case, the title is merely
symbolic and that it confers no powers. He is merely
a "goodwill ambassador" for Sierra Leone, he
insists. Even so, says intelligence and security
expert Wesley Wark, a SIRC member should not
represent himself as an Ambassador Plenipotentiary.
"A sensible person would say that even an honorific
diplomatic appointment from outside the country
creates an appearance of a conflict of interest for
SIRC," says Dr. Wark. He adds that it also raises
concerns about "potential foreign interference in
Canadian affairs," which is something that CSIS
director Richard Fadden has warned about.
Dr. Porter describes himself as a successful member of
Sierra Leone's diaspora, a committed "Sierra
Leonophile" who is always on the lookout for
opportunities "that would help the development of
that poor little west African country."
Mr. Ben-Menashe says he was impressed with the
well-connected doctor. "He's a very bright guy," he
told the National Post in an interview. He was
struck especially by Dr. Porter's political ties.
Inside Dr. Porter's Montreal office, where he was
interviewed by the National Post, sit dozens of
framed photographs of himself posing with famous
politicians and heads of state: Dr. Porter with
George W. Bush; Dr. Porter with Stephen Harper; Dr.
Porter with Dick Cheney. And Dr. Porter with Sierra
Leone's President.
For his part, Dr. Porter says he found Mr. Ben-Menashe
to be "an intriguing guy, to be honest. I didn't
think he was a bad man initially."
The two men signed their $120-million consultancy
agreement in June 2010 and continued to meet that
summer, and discussed other possible ventures
abroad. Dr. Porter acknowledges that he made a
number of visits to Mr. Ben-Menashe's Montreal home,
which is a short drive from his own residence, a
$1.2-million penthouse condominium close to
downtown.
Dr. Porter says he invited Mr. Ben-Menashe to a
cocktail reception that he hosted. Mr. Ben-Menashe
accepted the invitation; both men recall that he
spent little time at the party, held at Dr. Porter's
residence.
Dr. Porter says that his deal with Mr. Ben-Menashe
soon "went by abeyance." According to Dr. Porter,
Mr. Ben-Menashe "tells a good story and I passed it
on, as requested, to the government, to the folks
there, they wanted to do bridges and road
development and things like that, and then nothing
really transpired.- We went to the ministry of the
government and they put all of the things that they
were going to spend this [$120-million] on. Five
million here, five million here, 35 million,
international market, housing, stadiums."
He insists that AIG fulfilled its end of the contract.
"The President knew," Dr. Porter said. "Absolutely.
I told him personally." It was Mr. Ben-Menashe who
did not live up to the bargain, he said. The
Russians never became involved, he said.
Mr. Ben-Menashe tells a different story. There was
nothing shady about the $120-million consultancy
agreement that he prepared, and that Dr. Porter
signed, he says. The Russians were prepared to
deliver the grant money to Sierra Leone and to
pursue options to build their port facility there,
he adds, but not until they had seen approval and
consent from President Koroma. "They never did [see
his consent]," insists Mr. Ben-Menashe.
He suspects - and Dr. Porter denies - that had any
infrastructure money arrived in Sierra Leone, it
would have been diverted and not used for the
purpose intended.
Dr. Porter has offered conflicting accounts about AIG,
which is registered in Sierra Leone and which he and
his family own. He first described himself as
"officially the chairman." Subsequently, he said he
hasn't been chairman since December, that the
present chairman is a business associate from Sierra
Leone named David Allen. And subsequent to that, he
said that Mr. Allen is actually AIG president. "He's
sort of in transition," offered Dr. Porter. "He will
be the chairman."
Dr. Porter was asked to identify members of his AIG
board. "I don't have [their names] on me at the
present time," he said. He then offered one: Victor
Kamara, whom he suggested was once "Sierra Leone's
ambassador to Italy." But he was mistaken. "I got
the wrong name," he admitted later. He offered the
name of another business associate of his in Sierra
Leone. "I got him mixed up with one of the
consultants."
Dr. Porter said he wanted to put the botched deal with
Mr. Ben-Menashe behind him. "I began to see that
maybe there wasn't anything there. You know, maybe
it was a hoax," he explained.
"I think if my [$200,000] deposit not been returned I
probably would have become much more excitable over
it. As it is I just said, 'Oh well, you know,
nothing lost, nothing gained.' And moved on. The
only thing that was perhaps a little bit irritating
for me is, I'd made representations to the
government that this was available, so there was a
little crow to eat."
But in October 2010, he wrote a letter of reference on
behalf of Mr. Ben-Menashe, who was having trouble
with the Bank of Montreal. The bank had apparently
grown suspicious of its client's large money
transfers and wanted to close his accounts.
"I have had the opportunity to interact with Mr. Ben
Menarche [sic] on a number of projects involving the
funding of infrastructure projects in Africa," Dr.
Porter wrote to the bank, using Privy Council
letterhead with SIRC's mailing address at the
bottom.
"In all my dealings with him, I have found him honest
and straightforward. Although I do not know the
nature of the issues that you may have, I have not
been given any cause for concern with respect to
business dealings that I have been part to. I would
be happy to discuss this further with you."
Asked why he would write such a letter when his
$120-million infrastructure deal hadn't materialized
and he had come to suspect he'd been "duped" by Mr.
Ben-Menashe, Dr. Porter offered a bizarre
explanation.
"I wrote this letter in a very cagey
way," he said, "hoping, when I write letters of
reference that say you may call me at this number,
is that if you want more, I'll be happy to talk to
you privately."
Given another opportunity to explain, he said "it's
not a very kind letter. It's actually a letter if
they read between the lines, you'd be, this is the
sort of letter that if I had received from someone,
if you sent me a letter of reference like this, I
would be a little bit intrigued. I would make a
phone call."
Despite everything that happened between them, Dr.
Porter still had not examined Mr. Ben-Menashe's
background until last month. "Maybe I should have
done more research," he concedes.
He conducted an initial "cursory" review - limited to
Mr. Ben-Menashe's profile on Wikipedia, the online
encyclopaedia - after being asked by the National
Post to explain their curious relationship. Yet he
claimed to know nothing of Mr. Ben-Menashe's
principal role in the Morgan Tsvangirai prosecution.
The disturbing episode is the most prominent entry
on Mr. Ben-Menashe's Wikipedia profile.
"Ari was involved in that?" asked Dr. Porter, Canada's
spy review boss. "Oh my God. I did not know that."
Culled from the National Post
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