CRIME
COVER
Mohawk
Brings Environmental Message to United Kingdom
AWARDS
Saskatchewan
to Host 12th National Aboriginal Achievement Awards
BIOGRAPHY
William
LaVanway: Galloping Through Life
BUSINESS
Court
Suspends Golf Course Sale
New
Online Claim Staking Process Raises Concerns
CRIME
Ex-Fed
Charged With Fraud
Manitoba Chiefs Reject Offer
to Monitor Police Inquiry in Shooting Death
ENVIRONMENT
Eagles
Mutilated Remains Discovered on Local First Nation
Deh
Cho Demands Push Mackenzie Project into Court
FILM
Films
Take Viewer on Many a Native Journey
Two-Spirited
and Multifaceted
GOVERNMENT
Federal
Budget Postpones Action on First Nations Needs
HUMOUR
The
Funny Bone
MUSIC
Buffy
Sainte-Marie Urges Artists to Nurture Creative Side
TRADITION
Elder
Urges Eagle Murderers to Confess
WOMEN
Cries
for Community and Accountability Voiced at Women's March
Ex-Fed Charged With Fraud
Treatment
Centre directors also face charges
By Frank Larue
It started more than four years ago when a confidential informant from the Sagkeeng First Nation told the Manitoba RCMP that the directors of a First Nations-run addictions treatment centre on the reserve were, in effect, an organized crime group.
The informant, known only as Source A, told investigators that the directors of the Virginia Fontaine Addictions Foundation on the Sagkeeng First Nation had "bought" the influence of a public official.
It
ended on March 11, 2005, when former federal bureaucrat 58-year-old Paul
Cochrane, pled guilty on charges of fraud and breach of trust before an
Ottawa courtroom. He admitted that he had received more than $200,000
in kickbacks for channeling millions of dollars to the aboriginal addictions
treatment centre.
The kickbacks included almost $30,000 in travel to Florida and the Caribbean, several SUVs and tens of thousands of dollars in cash, which Cochrane used to buy condominiums in Mount Treblant, Quebec.
An assistant deputy minister with Health Canada in charge of a $1 billion budget before he retired in 2001, Cochrane admitted that he and his family received cash and gifts in exchange for directing more than $70 million in contracts to the addictions treatment foundation.
He alleged in court that the kickbacks came from Perry Fontaine, director of the Virginia Fontaine Addictions Foundation. The foundation runs a 76-bed treatment facility on the Sagkeeng reserve about 145 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg.
Cochrane said he repeatedly increased funding to the foundation, negotiating agreements with Fontaine before Health Canada could approve them and pressuring his staff to fast-track millions of dollars in payments.
Justice Lynn Rutshny said Cochrane had allowed himself to become corrupted and had fallen from the grace of his high position. The judge agreed with the plea bargain that Cochrane should serve one year in jail.
"No civil servant working at their desk today would think that's a slap on the wrist," said William Vanveen, Cochrane's lawyer. "That's a serious penalty."
Before being taken to an Ottawa detention centre, Cochrane told the judge he was sorry he let down the public trust and regretted the embarrassment he caused officials in his former department.
Cochrane will likely serve eight months of his sentence in jail before receiving two years probation. He also faces charges on criminal tax evasion; and is a defendant in a civil suit launched by the government to reclaim some of the money that went to the treatment foundation.
His lawyer said that the details of his plea bargain are still being
worked out for Cochrane to provide evidence in the continuing prosecution
of 50-year-old Perry Fontaine and his family. Fontaine allegedly corrupted
Cochrane by entertaining his in a lavish manner.
The RCMP has confiscated more than 60,000 documents from a number of banks,
government offices and private homes in three provinces. According to
auditors, more than a million dollars of the funds Cochrane directed to
the foundation ended up in one of the director's pocket.
Investigators from the commercial crime section charged Perry Fontaine with eight counts of giving a benefit to a public official. Police also laid one count of the same charge against Fontaine's wife, Dolores, and two counts against Fontaine's daughter Vera Lynn Bruyere. Fontaine was already charged with fraud more than $5,000 in 2003 and several firearms related offences not connected to the Virgina Fontaine Addictions Foundation scandal.
Cochrane's testimony will be used in a continuing investigation against six other people in Manitoba who have been charged in the scandal.
It's not the first time the foundation has found itself at the center of scandal.
In late 2000, Health Canada cut off $7 million in federal funding after
reports that 70 staff members had taken a Caribbean cruise with federal
funds. Foundation officials said the trip was a professional development
exercise. Aside from the Caribbean cruise, there were stories of lavish
gifts, nepotism and poorly trained staff.