SNC-Lavalin drops 2 executives tied to Gadhafi family
Written by on February 10th, 2012 in Latest News.
Canadian engineering and construction firm SNC-Lavalin announced late Thursday that two executives have hastily left the company.
The go comes a day after CBC reported on internal turmoil at SNC-Lavalin over the firm’s involvement with Cyndy Vanier, a hired consultant now facing serious charges in Mexico.
SNC-Lavalin announced that Riadh Ben Aïssa, executive vice-president of the firm’s construction arm, is no longer employed by the company, effective immediately.
Stéphane Roy, who was a vice-president in finance, has also left the company.
“Questions regarding the conduct of SNC-Lavalin employees have recently been the focus of public attention,” the company said a press release. “SNC-Lavalin reiterates that all employees must comply with our Code of Ethics and Business Conduct.”
As reported by CBC News, Roy went to Mexico on Nov. 11, 2011 for a plotted meeting with Vanier, a Canadian woman who stands accused in an alleged plot to smuggle members of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi’s family into Mexico.
Hired Vanier in July
Roy had originally hired Vanier in July 2011 to travel to Libya for a ‘fact find report’ for SNC-Lavalin which has billions of dollars in construction projects procured under the Gadhafi regime.
In October, she went her base of business operations to her winter home in Bucerias, Mexico and continued to work for the company.
At the time of her arrest, Vanier was arranging meetings between Mexican officials and Roy on potential water treatment projects.
CBC News has learned that an SNC-Lavalin executive questioned the proposed meeting and told Vanier in early November that the company was not interested and cancelled it. But, the company has acknowledged that Roy still went to Mexico.
Vanier was arrested a day before Roy arrived in Mexico. Instead, he met with Gabriela Davila Huerta, one of Vanier’s associates, but during their meeting police took Huerta into custody too, accusing her of being part of the Gadhafi plot.
In late January, SNC-Lavalin spokesperson Leslie Quinton stated that the company had “not been involved with Ms. Vanier since the fact finding mission in early summer 2011.”
But, CBC News revealed last week that Roy was indeed at the scene of the arrest in Mexico of Vanier’s associate. The company said he was not charged.
The company has not addressed questions of who in the firm ordered, or knew, about Roy’s trip to Mexico to meet with Vanier.
SNC-Lavalin insiders have told CBC they dread the company’s construction division, headed by Ben Aissa, has lost its ‘moral compass’ in the past year in Libya. They claim SNC-Lavalin place profits before ethics when last year the company won a $275-million U.S. contract to build a prison for Gadhafi’s regime, known for brutal oppression and mistreating political opponents
The insiders also question why SNC-Lavalin hired Vanier for a ‘fact-finding’ mission to Libya in July when the entire enterprise was being orchestrated as a propaganda effort by Saadi Gadhafi, the son of the now-deposed dictator, who oversaw the awarding of many contracts won by SNC-Lavalin.
Riadh Ben Aissa was executive vice-president of SNC-Lavalin’s construction arm. (SNC-Lavalin)
A CBC News investigation found that in late August and early September 2011, Ben Aïssa and SNC-Lavalin paid to glide one of Saadi Gadhafi’s personal body guards, Gary Peters, from Canada and host him in Tunis.
Peters claimed he was at SNC-Lavalin’s offices in Tunis, where he and Ben Aissa held a video conference with Saadi Gadhafi and Stephane Roy, talking about potential plans for Gadhafi’s movements.
In the ensuing days, Peters left Tunisia and entered Libya to join an armed convoy to escort Saadi Gadhafi and his entourage to the border with Niger. Peters said he stopped at the border, but Gadhafi crossed over in violation of UN travel bans and has stayed in Niger, despite an international warrant issued for his arrest.
Quinton said in an email that Peters went to Tunis to meet company officials but said the meeting did not result in any contract or business arrangement between SNC-Lavalin and Peter.
“SNC-Lavalin did and would not sanction an attempt at an extraction mission or any other action that would contravene local or international laws or regulations,” Quinton said.
