Vas Georgiou, former chief administrative officer of Toronto’s St. Michael’s Hospital, walks into the Superior Court of Justice Courthouse, in Toronto, on Nov. 12.Christopher Katsarov/The Globe and Mail
A Crown prosecutor accused the former chief administrative officer of Toronto’s St. Michael’s Hospital of providing “insider information” to the president of a construction company that went on to win a $300-million redevelopment contract.
During her cross-examination of Vas Georgiou on Wednesday and Thursday, Crown counsel Rachel Young also accused him of minimizing his business ties to John Aquino, the former president of Bondfield Construction Co. Ltd. who is also on trial for criminal fraud charges related to the bidding process for the redevelopment.
Mr. Georgiou, who has been testifying all week, repeatedly denied wrongdoing.
Mr. Georgiou and Mr. Aquino are each charged with two counts of fraud over $5,000 stemming from the redevelopment of the Toronto hospital. Both men have pleaded not guilty and the allegations against them have not been proved in court.
The Crown’s case focuses on the men’s alleged undisclosed business connections, as well as their alleged secret communications throughout the bidding process for St. Michael’s, which Bondfield won in 2015.
Ms. Young presented an e-mail chain that allegedly shows Mr. Georgiou providing information to Mr. Aquino about the St. Michael’s project that other potential bidders didn’t know yet. In August, 2012 – five months before he joined the hospital – Mr. Georgiou informed Mr. Aquino that the construction would cost around $250-million and that there would not be much variation in the design.
“That is something you are telling him as a tip,” Ms. Young said. “That is insider information.”
Mr. Georgiou denied this, saying he was confirming information that was already known about the project. He held several management positions at Infrastructure Ontario until he left in January, 2012.
Before joining St. Michael’s in January, 2013, Mr. Georgiou set up a lunch in October, 2012, with Mr. Aquino and Bruce Gray, an executive vice-president at Infrastructure Ontario who managed the St. Michael’s project.
That introduction was to help Bondfield’s bid, Ms. Young said. Mr. Georgiou said he was helping Mr. Gray network and “foster a relationship” with Mr. Aquino. He said Mr. Gray already knew executives at other construction companies.
The trial has heard that at the same time Mr. Georgiou was evaluating bids for the project, he was also working on the side for Mr. Aquino’s real estate company, Gervais Property Management Inc., which owned two commercial buildings in north Toronto. Mr. Georgiou failed on more than one occasion to disclose his relationship with Mr. Aquino, Ms. Young alleged.
The trial has also heard that the alleged secret communications between Mr. Georgiou and Mr. Aquino took place over a bondfield.com e-mail address, bccldevelopment@bondfield.com and a BlackBerry that Mr. Aquino gave to Mr. Georgiou. The Crown has alleged that Mr. Georgiou used the BlackBerry to leak confidential information about the procurement to Mr. Aquino.
Mr. Georgiou previously testified that Mr. Aquino supplied him with the BlackBerry in August, 2013, to talk about Gervais, which was trying at the time to refinance its buildings.
That explanation “makes no sense,” Ms. Young said.
The procurement rules governing public-sector projects require companies bidding on contracts to communicate only with Infrastructure Ontario’s official contact person.
Ms. Young also presented e-mails, memos and phone records in Ontario Superior Court of Justice, revealing that he did not fully disclose his alleged business ties to Mr. Aquino.
Mr. Georgiou testified earlier this week that he did not consider the work he was doing for Gervais or the bottled-water venture the two men had an interest in as conflicts that required disclosure.
The veteran executive, 60, was intimately familiar with the rules governing conflicts of interest for public-sector projects. His résumé shown to the court says he established a new procurement policy designed to ensure a “fair, open and transparent process,” at Infrastructure Ontario before leaving in 2012.
Asked by Ms. Young whether he was exempt from these rules, Mr. Georgiou said, “The work I was doing was not in conflict with the hospital.”
When St. Michael’s hired financial consultants Duff & Phelps to examine Mr. Georgiou’s private business dealings in 2014, for example, he played down his relationship with Mr. Aquino. In a March, 2014, memo to the consultants and presented in court, Mr. Georgiou said Gervais hired him in 2012 as an adviser. He does not disclose that Mr. Aquino owned 50 per cent of Gervais, and adds that he knew him from his days at Infrastructure Ontario.
“You are minimizing how close you are to John Aquino,” Ms. Young said.
“I wouldn’t say that,” Mr. Georgiou responded.
Special to The Globe and Mail