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Ari Ben-Menashe was inside his spacious Montreal townhouse Sunday evening, preparing to leave on another foreign trip. A controversial consultant with ties to political despots and businessmen all over the world, Mr. Ben-Menashe is an inveterate deal-maker whose activities occasionally cause problems — for associates, for himself.

At around 9:30 p.m., a window was smashed. Something was tossed inside a ground-floor living room and his townhouse burst into flames. The fire quickly spread, consuming all of the interior, including a third-floor office where Mr. Ben-Menashe frequently conducted business.

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The townhouse was “gutted,” he told a National Post reporter, about an hour after the fire had started. “It’s a write-off,” he said, watching from the street as fire crews tried to contain the blaze.

Someone had been out to get him, he suggested.

Early evidence points to arson. According to Montreal police, a passerby had witnessed “a suspect fleeing the scene” immediately after the fire took hold. Police said that a Molotov cocktail was likely the device used to ignite the blaze. An adjoining home, which is for sale with an asking price of $1.6-million, was badly damaged but is expected to be salvageable. There were no reports of injuries.