One of the defendants in the alleged $22.5 million McGill University Health Centre fraud case, Yanaï Elbaz, has been sentenced to three years in prison.

Elbaz was the ex-right-hand man of Arthur Porter, the disgraced former director of the MUHC who died in Panama in 2015 and was the prime suspect in what is considered one of the biggest corruption cases in Canadian history.

Like Porter, Elbaz was charged in connection with an alleged bribery scheme involving the $1.3-billion contract to build the MUHC superhospital.

Superior Court Justice Claude Leblond accepted the Crown and the defence's joint suggestion of a 39-month sentence.

Leblond rejected the MUHC's request to be compensated and said it could pursue the matter in civil court.