MONTREAL – The Jewish General Hospital (JGH) is seeking more than $4.2 million from construction contractors and three former JGH employees in a lawsuit filed in Quebec Superior Court.
The principal accused, Gilbert Leizerovici of Réno-Action, as well as two associates, one of whom is his brother, and their companies, it is alleged, fraudulently charged the JGH between 2004 and 2013 for work never done, some of it related to the JGH’s $429-million critical-care wing, which opened in January.
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They are accused of colluding in the scheme with three former JGH employees, who allegedly had work done on their or their relatives’ or friends’ personal property, billing it to the hospital.
They are named in the suit as Kotiel Berdugo, who was director of the JGH’s technical services department; Jeffrey Fields, a former consultant and project manager; and Philippe Castiel, a former director of planning and real estate development.
The suit alleges that the three also took cash bribes.
In March, a group of contractors who did construction work at the JGH were charged with 78 counts of fraud in connection with their work at the hospital, related to false billing and obtaining illegal tax refunds from the government, following an investigation by UPAC (the province’s anti-corruption squad) and Revenue Québec. These alleged crimes took place between 2008 and 2011.
READ: CONTRACTOR ACCUSED OF DEFRAUDING MONTREAL JEWISH HOSPITAL
Leizerovici and Raphael Elkaim, another contractor, face most of the charges.
Leizerovici and his companies were also charged with 65 other counts of tax violations in December.
