Zurich determined that the two men communicated secretly throughout the hospital bidding process. 235. However, in his e-mailed statement to The Globe he said he never received cash or any other undisclosed payments from Mr. Aquino or anyone else., The reason cash payments were being raised in Mr. Aquinos examination, was because of an e-mail he sent to Mr. Georgiou in 2017. .td_block_template_13 .td-related-title .td-cur-simple-item, Not long after, The Globe determined that, a year before Mr. Georgiou was hired at St. Michaels, he had been fired from Infrastructure Ontario after he was implicated in a fraud at Torontos York University. Charges against John Aquino also include break-and-enter, uttering threats return tdLocalCache.data.hasOwnProperty(resource_id) && tdLocalCache.data[resource_id] !== null; body .td_top_authors .td_mod_wrap:hover .td-author-comments-count, this.id = ''; John Aquino is also being investigated by the SFO for his role in alleged corruption at St. Michaels. Architect Ontario Construction News staff writer this.post_count = 0; //from wp function tdBlock() { - Google Street View The former CEO of a once-major Vaughan development firm was arrested on a raft of criminal charges including assault with a weapon, break-and-enter and four counts of uttering threats. Alessandra.Aquino@aquicon.com. They should continue to fund construction, and then sue the actual fraudsters (John Aquino & Bondfield). When Mr. Dipede replied that, indeed, Mr. Aquinos name was in the public filings associated with the building, Mr. Aquino responded: So this reporter could find out., At 2 a.m. on Sept. 10, Mr. Aquino sent instructions to Mr. Dipede and Mr. Aquinos younger brother, Steve: We need to hire the best libel lawyer to go against The Globe. John Aquino also mused about leaning on an associate, who he believed had a relationship with a member of the Thomson family the owners of Woodbridge Co. Ltd., which owns The Globe and Mail. Mr. Aquino and Mr. Georgiou considered Mr. Mendonca their lifeline, internal Bondfield e-mails show. John Aquino, an unregistered lobbyist, breached 140-10 and 140-41A by sending a letter on behalf of Bondfield Construction Company Limited ("Bondfield") about the Tender to a City staff lawyer on September 30, 2013, when these communications were not permitted by the City's procurement policies and the procurement document. The Globe and Mail reported that the complainants include two Bondfield officials who allege Aquino threatened to kill them in the months before he was fired in 2018, and one employee who alleged Aquino returned to a Bondfield storage facility in April of this year and assaulted him with a weapon. .td_3D_btn, }, But the records were released in March after The Globe and Mail successfully fought a judges order that sealed them. this.td_user_action = ''; // load more or infinite loader (used by the animation) .td-menu-background:before, var td_viewport_interval_list=[{"limitBottom":767,"sidebarWidth":228},{"limitBottom":1018,"sidebarWidth":300},{"limitBottom":1140,"sidebarWidth":324}]; .widget_display_replies .bbp-author-name, After Mr. Georgiou was dismissed from St. Michaels, and he resumed using his bondfield.com e-mail address, the two men exchanged many e-mails about strategy, including how to proceed with their lawsuits. In its summary of key findings, the special committee declared that the procurement was not compromised. However, he added he would have no reason to correct The Globes interpretation of Mr. Aquinos notes. Using the word we loosely did not infer that I was on his team and I wanted him to win and not the others, he said. In an e-mail, a spokesperson for the hospital said it is co-operating fully with the investigation and has retained a law firm to investigate. Zurich argues that the alleged collusion should nullify any obligation it has to pay for the completion of the project. But the issues with him were much more extensive than $65,000 in false invoices. I have no idea when or why or how much. In an e-mailed statement, a spokesperson for Metrolinx, the provincial agency that oversees GO Transit, said it learned about this allocation because of The Globes inquiries. In doing so, Aquino siphoned off tens of millions of dollars from Bondfield. The fraudster shareholder was John Aquino. Suppliers, upset about payment issues, stopped delivering products. In response to the revelations, the hospital and Infrastructure Ontario each hired teams of lawyers and forensic investigators, neither of which found evidence of the alleged kickbacks. .block-title > span, } As far as your story goes, I wont provide any information on the victims, in order to protect them, Pattenden wrote to OCN. .td-footer-wrapper .widget_product_search input[type="submit"]:hover, #bbpress-forums .bbp-topic-freshness a:hover, .wpb_tabs li.ui-tabs-active a, The problem was that neither company, both of which were owned by Mr. Georgious family, had actually performed any work. Photos: Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail, Esri, DigitalGlobe, GeoEye, i-cubed, USDA FSA, USGS, AEX, Getmapping, Aerogrid, IGN, IGP, swisstopo, and the GIS User Community. Aquino, a former Ontario General Contractors Association chair, has been charged with two counts of assault with a weapon; break and enter; and four counts of uttering threats. Follow Greg McArthur on Twitter: @McarthurGregOpens in a new windowFollow Karen Howlett on Twitter: @kahowlettOpens in a new window. if ( -1 !== navigator.userAgent.indexOf('Safari') && -1 === navigator.userAgent.indexOf('Chrome') ) { background-color: #38a6c1; The details of the mass deletion are contained in thousands of pages of court documents unsealed in March, at the request of The Globe, by Ontario Superior Court Justice Cory Gilmore. htmlTag.className += ' td-md-is-android'; This article was published more than 1 year ago. .td-right-smart-list:hover, .td-header-wrap .black-menu .sf-menu > .current-menu-ancestor > a, The patient care tower at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto on Aug. 31, 2018. Bondfield also launched a public relations campaign with clients, suppliers and subcontractors to assure them nothing improper had taken place with the St. Michaels procurement. Prosecutors filed detention orders against the accused in Rome and in Reggio Calabria, the capital of the southern Italian region where the 'Ndrangheta, the proper name of the Mafia there, was. color: #38a6c1; The story, which detailed how Mr. Georgiou had been implicated in a fraud at a public university, was damning, and would soon spell the end of Mr. Georgious time at the hospital. Evidence filed in court by Zurich includes Mr. Aquinos handwritten notes, which show he sought advice from Mr. MacNaughton. But on Sept. 15, 2015, he was up against an ancient. #bbpress-forums #bbp-single-user-details #bbp-user-navigation li.current a, } Most startling was that it alleges former Ontario General Contractors Association chair John Aquino, a 33 per cent shareholder in the privately-held business founded by his father Ralph 50 years ago, took $5.2 million. In the e-mail exchanges shown at top, a Bondfield staffer tells Mr. Aquino he has found turf for the backyard at Mr. Georgious Toronto home, at bottom right in satellite view, with the house at street view at bottom left.Photos: Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail, Esri, DigitalGlobe, GeoEye, i-cubed, USDA FSA, USGS, AEX, Getmapping, Aerogrid, IGN, IGP, swisstopo, and the GIS User Community. This barely satisfactory score was not good enough for one of the Infrastructure Ontario officials on the steering committee. .td-grid-style-4 .entry-title The company had just eked out a passing grade. Sign up today. get: function (resource_id) { On Jan. 29, 2013 just a few weeks after Mr. Georgiou started his new job at the hospital a Bondfield employee e-mailed Mr. Aquino to tell him he was working on the companys submission. .tds-progress-bar1 .tdm-progress-bar:after, var tds_theme_color_site_wide="#38a6c1"; window.googletag = window.googletag || {cmd: []}; Despite being terminated with cause the result of which was supposed to be the full termination of all of his compensation Mr. Georgiou received his full salary for another 18 months. htmlTag.className += ' td-md-is-chrome'; .td-theme-wrap .sf-menu ul .current-menu-item > a, Andy Pattenden confirmed in an email to Ontario Construction News (OCN) on Monday. } CFO at Bondfield Construction Company Limited Vaughan, Ontario, Canada. Copyright Of The Record 2020 All rights reserved. He also retained a public affairs specialist, David MacNaughton, who just six months later would be named Canadas ambassador to the United States. .td_block_template_4 .td-related-title .td-cur-simple-item:before { var tds_smart_sidebar="enabled"; The new leak was announced Jan. 9, seven Ontario Construction News staff writer border-color: transparent transparent #38a6c1 transparent; Bondfield's financing for St. Michael's project meant it wouldn't receive any taxpayer support from the public-private partnership until after the patient-care tower was finished. In 2017, more subcontractors walked off the job because of lack of payment. background: rgba(0,0,0,0.8); .td-pulldown-syle-2 .td-subcat-dropdown ul:after, Join to connect Bondfield Construction Company Limited. } var td_magnific_popup_translation_tCounter="%curr% of %total%"; He sued The Globe as well, but never proceeded past filing a statement of claim. The two men also believed, the e-mails show, they still had a key asset safely in place within the hospital. .page-nav .current, After The Globe published a story on Sept. 24, 2015, outlining how Mr. Georgiou had been working on Mr. Aquinos commercial buildings at the same time he was evaluating bidders for the project, Mr. OBrien sprang into action. Michaels Hospital procurement was not compromised.. Whats more, it said its investigators which consisted of a team from Toronto law firm Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP and forensic auditors from Cohen Hamilton Steger & Co. Inc. had found no evidence of any attempt to inappropriately influence the procurement. Infrastructure Ontario paid Blakes $1.4-million for its work on the report. The mass deletion of those estimated 5,000 e-mails, however, did not capture every mention of Mr. Georgiou. } "item": { A special committee of the board of Infrastructure Ontario went so far as to conclude that the St. The Globe and Mail discovered that information on their own, and I wont confirm it.. Sam Ciccolini, one of the founders of Masters Insurance Ltd. and a prominent Conservative party backer in Vaughan, responded to the e-mailed statement: I think a legal action should be filed against the Globe and let them know that the Aquinos are no pushovers and the Ciccolinis will be right beside them to help.. .td-subcat-filter .td-subcat-dropdown a:hover, Infrastructure Ontario continues to defend its conclusions. .td-block-title-wrap .td-wrapper-pulldown-filter .td-pulldown-filter-display-option:hover, In the e-mail exchanges shown at top, a Bondfield staffer tells Mr. Aquino he has found turf for the backyard at Mr. Georgious Toronto home, at bottom right in satellite view, with the house at street view at bottom left. window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; The aggregate value of these projects is in the billions of dollars. Aquicon has grown exponentially since those early days, and now serves an array of sectors including recreation centres, multi-storey residential facilities, operation centres and post-secondary institutions. On July 23, 2014, the evaluators tasked with reviewing the design submissions of the bidders presented their scores to the steering committee of four senior officials, including Mr. Georgiou. .tds-title3 .tdm-title-line:after, .td_wp_recentcomments a:hover, var td_pass_empty="Pass empty! See the complete profile on LinkedIn and discover Vitalii's connections and jobs at similar companies. "@type": "ListItem", Now, St. Michaels just needed someone to manage the project. a.vc_btn-black:hover, #td-mobile-nav .td-menu-socials-wrap a:hover i, Only Infrastructure Ontario knew those figures, and even he hadnt been told at that point, he said. In 2015, when The Globe was preparing a story about the close ties between the two men, John Aquino ordered an IT official at Bondfield to permanently delete 5,000 e-mails and records about Mr. Georgiou from the companys servers. This letter will help both my and your lawsuit with the newspaper.. body .td_block_list_menu li.current-menu-ancestor > a, .page-nav .current, border-color: #38a6c1 !important; In his examination for discovery, Mr. Aquino refused, on the advice of his lawyers, to answer questions about his direction to record the costs to the GO parking garage. ( function () { When asked by Zurichs lawyers how he had such detailed information about a confidential meeting only a day after the argument, Mr. Aquino said he couldnt recall precisely who told him. .archive .widget_archive .current a, .td-header-wrap .black-menu .sf-menu > .current-menu-item > a, The Bondfield group is the general contractor on a number of large scale infrastructure and other construction projects in Ontario. .td-theme-wrap .sf-menu ul .current-menu-ancestor > a, He was released with a next court date of Jan. 6, 2021, Pattenden wrote. .single-product .product .summary .cart .button:hover, Mr. Aquino did not specify when the work began, but suggested it started while Mr. Georgiou was a senior executive at Infrastructure Ontario the procurement agency that had awarded Bondfield several contracts, including multiple hospital projects and some of the facilities for the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto. Bordeaux 3 Octr 1778. var td_magnific_popup_translation_image_tError="The image #%curr% could not be loaded. We are yet without any Arrivals from any part of America, from Carolina as an embargo is in force for the exporting of Rice,1 it is not extraordinary, but from all the other Provinces some Vessels may be expected as there are . Tel: 905-458-1313 ext. Fax: 905-458-6020. The hospital believed it had just the man for the job an executive with a background in health care and construction. The letter it sent him cited his involvement in the false-invoice scheme, as well as his failure to disclose his work for Mr. Aquinos companies. Condrain Company (1983) Ltd. has been charged with six counts of criminal negligence causing death in relation to a crash Ontario Construction News staff writer The company wouldnt receive anything from taxpayers until it hit its first milestone the completion of the patient-care tower. var td_ad_background_click_target=""; } In his statement to The Globe, Mr. DuHamel of Sunnybrook said no one had informed the hospital about the testimony. font-size:25px; The open court principle is protected by the constitutionally-entrenched right of freedom of expression. The Pickering parking garage contract was awarded on a lump-sum basis, and therefore, any extra costs should be born by Bondfield, not Metrolinx, Ms. Aikins said. .td_block_wrap .td-subcat-item a.td-cur-simple-item { .archive .widget_archive .current, They also sometimes obtain a courts permission to execute civil search warrants on residences and businesses what is known as an Anton Piller order. { Andy Pattenden confirmed in an email to Ontario Construction News (OCN) on Monday. The result was a $125-million libel lawsuit from the construction company. Contact us: insights@ontarioconstructionnews.com, 2023 26750547 Ontario Ltd., Ontario Construction News, 1554 Carling Ave. Suite 57, Ottawa, ON K1Z 7M4 (888) 627-8717 ext 114. } Zurich is suing Mr. Aquino and Mr. Georgiou, as well as Unity Health Toronto, the hospital network that includes St. Michaels, arguing that the bonds Zurich issued on the project should be rescinded because the process was allegedly corrupt. On Nov. 12, 2015, St. Michaels fired Mr. Georgiou for cause. .td_module_wrap:hover .entry-title a, The Globe is not naming these sources because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the procurement. }, Mr. Aquino and his company had many reasons to cheer the news. In 2014 in the middle of the St. Michaels procurement Bondfields then controller, Domenic Dipede, exchanged e-mails with another Potentia shareholder, Ted Manziaris, about Mr. Aquino and Mr. Georgiou investing. Bondfield's financing for St. Michael's project meant it wouldn't receive any taxpayer support from the public-private partnership until after the patient-care tower was finished.Cole Burston/The Globe and Mail. EllisDon celebrates a major milestone with the grand opening of the Ken and Marilyn Thomson Patient Care Centre at Michael Ontario Construction News staff writer body .td_top_authors .td-active .td-author-post-count, In response to e-mailed questions from The Globe, Linda Robinson, the then-chair of Infrastructure Ontarios board and a former partner at Osler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, said: I am not going to comment on matters that were reviewed at great length and in painstaking detail by the legal and accounting firms five years ago., Michael Lindsay, the new CEO of Infrastructure Ontario, said in an e-mailed statement that, because the agency selects winners by consensus as part of a committee, it is virtually impossible for individuals to influence the outcome., As for the investigators failure to uncover the secret e-mails between Mr. Aquino and Mr. Georgiou, or the evidence of the home renovations and other alleged benefits, Mr. Lindsay chalked that up to the limitations of private investigators. 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