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In December, a lawyer representing the provincial agency that seizes the proceeds of crime said authorities were in the process of “confiscating” all the assets from the alleged MUHC plot.

Paul Mercier of the Bureau de lutte aux produits de la criminalité gave a precise total for the amount that was frozen: $17.5 million.

As for the remaining $5 million that is alleged to have been paid in secret commissions, Mercier was at a loss to explain where it might have been laundered.

Since Porter’s death on June 30, investigators and officials with the provincial agency have been tight-lipped about the missing loot. One lawyer with the agency would speak only on condition the interview be conducted off the record and, even then, did not answer a reporter’s questions about the missing $5 million.

However, an examination of court documents by the Gazette suggests that most of the missing funds — $4 million – was likely transferred to the country where Porter was arrested by Interpol agents two years ago and where he died: Panama.

Indeed, in the days after Porter’s death, the Unité permanante anticorruption dispatched two investigators to Panama not only to identify his body but to search for the missing funds, according to La Presse.

“I want to assure Quebecers that we are continuing to deploy the resources and energy to recover for Quebec large sums of money that was defrauded,” UPAC commissioner Robert Lafrenière said in a July 7 statement on Porter’s death.