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“Nobody that I know of was questioning the integrity of Dr. Porter,” he said.

It’s a much different story today, as Dr. Porter fights extradition from a Panama jail cell to face corruption charges related to the hospital project. He was forced to resign from SIRC, the federal spy review board, after the National Postexposed his business dealings with notorious lobbyist Ari Ben Menashe in November 2011. He stepped down as chief executive officer of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) the following month.

Sgt. Jean-Frédérick Gagnon of the Sûreté du Québec testified that Dr. Porter personally received $11.25-million in payments from SNC-Lavalin Inc., paid to a shell company in the Bahamas. Dr. Porter’s right-hand man at the MUHC, Yanai Elbaz, received the same amount through a second shell company, Sgt. Gagnon said, making for a total kickback of $22.5-million in exchange for ensuring SNC won the contract.

While the payments went unnoticed by government officials, they raised red flags at SNC. A contract signed in December 2009 between SNC-Lavalin International Inc. and Sierra Asset Management, Dr. Porter’s shell company, called for $30-million in payments, purportedly in connection with an Algerian gas project. Sgt. Gagnon said Ron Denom, an SNC executive, was told to sign the contract by Pierre Duhaime, then CEO of SNC, and Riadh Ben Aissa, then president of SNC’s construction division.

A copy of the contract kept by Mr. Denom contained his handwritten note that the contract was signed “under instructions from P. Duhaime and R. Ben Aissa — strict secrecy — ‘just sign – no questions asked.’ ” Sgt. Gagnon said that on a second version of the contract, modified to change the dates of the payments, Mr. Denom’s signature was forged.