The five-year-old criminal investigation into kickback allegations involving ORNGE air ambulance is about to wrap up.
Ontario Provincial Police spokesperson Peter Leon confirmed that the investigation is close to completion, but would not say whether charges will be laid or provide any explanation for the unusually lengthy probe.
“I have reached out to Detective Superintendent (David) Truax and can confirm that the criminal investigation is still ongoing and anticipated to be completed soon,” said Leon.
The investigation of former ORNGE boss Dr. Chris Mazza began in February 2012 after a series of Toronto Star stories that probed safety issues and allegations of connections between Mazza and suppliers, including Italian helicopter company AgustaWestland.
The story that brought in OPP detectives revealed how after ORNGE bought helicopters from the Italian company, a private, Mazza-controlled firm received a payment of $4.7 million and the promise of $2 million more from AgustaWestland. The Italian firm has said it did nothing wrong and is trying to retrieve some of that $4.7-million payment in court. The OPP was asked by the province to investigate that transaction, along with other transactions.
In the aftermath, Mazza and many top officials at ORNGE lost their jobs and a new board of directors was put in place.
ORNGE is a provincially funded and regulated agency that receives $150 million annually. It operates a fleet of fixed-wing planes and helicopters tasked with providing air ambulance service.
Mazza took over the provincial air ambulance agency in 2005, rebranding it ORNGE. Years later, a conservative critic of the Liberal government would quip that the beleaguered ORNGE dropped the “A” because A stood for “accountability.”
Mercurial at times, Mazza, a former emergency room doctor from Sunnybrook Hospital, took the agency on a dizzying ride. Executive compensation rose, with Mazza the biggest beneficiary. In six years he was paid almost $10 million.
He also took ski trips and international junkets, often with his girlfriend, an ORNGE executive. It was not unusual for his hotel room bill on international trips to be $2,400 for the night. He would also hand in parking receipts for as little as 75 cents.
Other executives were highly paid, though for years the agency hid their salaries, which by law should have been disclosed to the public. ORNGE executives who were in favour with Mazza were allowed to enrol in company paid executive MBAs.
Kelly Long, Mazza’s girlfriend and an ORNGE vice-president, received an Ornge-funded executive MBA from the Richard Ivey business school at Western University in London. Five other executives received Ornge-funded business degrees at a total cost of $600,000.
It was the helicopter deal with AgustaWestland that prompted then-Liberal health minister Deb Matthews to call in police.
When the Star began unravelling the ORNGE story, a document surfaced showing that not long after the Mazza-controlled ORNGE bought 12 AgustaWestland choppers at a cost of $144 million, AgustaWestland made a hefty payment to ORNGE Peel, a company created by Mazza (the name was later changed to ORNGE Global. The payment was for $4.7 million and a promise of $2 million more that was never paid.
On paper, the money was to pay for “marketing services” the Mazza-led private ORNGE Peel company performed for AgustaWestland. Delving into that agreement, the Star discovered those “marketing services” consisted of a small binder of information pulled together by Long.
When the matter was raised at a provincial committee probing the ORNGE scandal, a former ORNGE executive revealed that ORNGE paid AgustaWestland $7 million more than it was obligated to. Police detectives were asked to probe the deal and find out if the money to the Mazza company was, as one critic described it in the legislature, a “kickback.”
The OPP has refused to discuss the case. Sources have told the Star that one factor that hampered detectives was the difficulty in obtaining information from Italian authorities. AgustaWestland has been embroiled in other scandals and two top company officials were convicted of bribery in Italy last year in connection with an Indian government purchase of their helicopters. Giuseppe Orsi and Bruno Spagnoli were sentenced to four years in prison each, but the sentence, which has already been appealed once, has been suspended and been sent back to an Italian appeal court with a ruling expected this spring.
Both men were involved in negotiating the ORNGE deal with Mazza and wined and dined Mazza on overseas trips.
In 2014, an OPP official told the Star that detectives were still seeking permission through country-to-country legal channels to travel to Italy and obtain evidence.
The OPP will not say if its detectives ever went to Italy, or if they have sought advice from a Crown attorney — a normal occurrence in a high profile case.
The Star has been unsuccessful in attempts to reach Mazza for this story. Since leaving ORNGE he has received treatment for depression, worked in a Thunder Bay ER, a sports rehab centre in Etobicoke and most recently with a clinic in Mississauga.
Kevin Donovan can be reached at kdonovan@thestar.ca or (416) 312-3503
Kevin Donovan can be reached at kdonovan@thestar.ca or (416) 312-3503
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