OPP detectives are headed to Italy soon to investigate criminal allegations connected to ORNGE air ambulance in a probe that has needed help from the RCMP and American authorities.

The probe, set up in response to a Toronto Star investigation two years ago that revealed allegations of wrongdoing and wild spending at the air ambulance firm, has to date involved 60 interviews with key players, and the review of 500,000 emails and 30,000 pages of documents, according to OPP commissioner Chris Lewis.

Lewis was at Queen’s Park this week answering questions from provincial politicians conducting their own probe of ORNGE. Politicians on the ORNGE committee wanted to know why the provincial police have taken two years to investigate.

In providing answers, Lewis provided a window into the investigation.

“Dealing with foreign countries and (mutual legal assistance treaties) takes months and months and months to do,” Lewis said in a hearing Wednesday. “You don’t just snap your fingers and fly to another country and start seizing documents and interviewing people. It’s not that simple.”

Detectives were called in February 2012 and are probing allegations connected to ORNGE founder Dr. Chris Mazza and his connections with suppliers, including the Italian firm that ORNGE purchased 12 state of the art helicopters from.

A Star investigation showed a Mazza-controlled firm received $4.7 million and the promise of $2 million more from the Italian firm AgustaWestland after the publicly funded ORNGE purchased the choppers. The firm has said it did nothing wrong and is in court trying to retrieve some of that $4.7 million payment.

Meanwhile, a corruption trial continues in Italy in connection with allegations that two top AgustaWestland bosses who are charged with orchestrating bribes in connection with the sale of 12 helicopters to the Indian government in 2010. The Star previously reported that Mazza, as part of his deal to purchase choppers for ORNGE, wined and dined in Italy and Canada with the same men, Giuseppe Orsi and Bruno Spagnolini. Both men have denied wrongdoing in the Indian case.

Lewis told the committee of politicians from all parties that the ORNGE probe it is an extraordinarily complex investigation that crosses international boundaries. While they have had co-operation from the current management of ORNGE and have not required search warrants, he explained that is quite different overseas.

Lewis said the OPP has had the assistance of the RCMP and federal justice department lawyers in preparing for investigators to travel to Italy, where the head offices of Finmeccanica, the parent company of helicopter manufacturer AgustaWestland, are located. He said it has taken a year to get approvals to gather information once they are there. Lewis said detectives will be leaving soon, though he did not give a specific date.

“You have to rely on us at the OPP, and a world-class organization that is widely respected for our investigative expertise, and our anti-rackets branch, which has been doing this sort of work since 1960,” Lewis told the Queen’s Park audience. He said his detectives are experienced with “complex fraud investigations.”

Lewis would not speculate whether charges would be laid in the ORNGE case, but he said the type of charges being probed “in an investigation of this type” include fraud, breach of trust, fraud against government, theft, secret commissions and breach of fiduciary duty.”

MPPS told Lewis that the ORNGE issue has had a “horrific effect” on the trust that people place in the air ambulance. MPP France Gélinas said “weeks go by, months go by and now years go by, and we don’t hear of any consequences for what has happened.”

Lewis said he wanted to “assure all members of the committee that if, in fact, people have done what is suggested, we can find out who those people are, we will lay charges.”

Mazza, who founded ORNGE, received $9.3 million in public money (salary, bonus, loans from ORNGE he never paid off, and expense payouts that included ski trips) from ORNGE during his six years at the helm.

When Mazza testified in 2012 before the same legislative committee that Lewis visited this week, he defended his record as CEO of the air ambulance firm.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...