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Opening comments: More at the end.
It is very interesting that this article notes some of the legal cases that the ORC has been enbroiled in and "irregular transactions"
BUT does not notes the $20 million Civil suite that Tony Miele is involved in - WHY! Because it involves Hazel McCallion?
Toronto Star - Jan. 25, 2006 - By Richard Brennan - Queen's Park Bureau. Head of troubled ORC resigns Miele brought in by Harris [1] to head agency
Credited with cleaning up real estate arm Tony Miele has resigned as president and chief executive officer of the problem-plagued provincial Ontario Realty Corporation.
Miele, a Conservative appointee who held the job for seven years, reorganized and downsized the agency under the Harris government.
The province also asked Miele to clean up a scandal at the agency, which manages Ontario real estate assets.
His resignation, submitted yesterday, is effective Feb. 7.
"This is a totally different organization from years ago when it had those issues to deal with," said ORC board chair Carol Gray, who had no idea where Miele was heading, but did add his contract was to expire in a couple of months. [2]
Miele could not be reached for comment about his resignation.
Besides a 4 1/2 year Ontario Provincial Police investigation, a forensic audit was conducted on 2,800 land transactions between 1985 and 2000.
"Tony was instrumental ... in getting to the bottom of really understanding what was happening," Gray said.
A court convicted Kent Banting, a former employee, of accepting kickbacks and breach of trust in the land scandal last year.
Banting, who repaid the agency $85,000, received a two-year conditional sentence including six months of house arrest.
Ross Farewell, another former employee, and Ivan Sirman, an outside contractor, still face 37 fraud, breach of trust and forgery charges.
Sirman, 53, faces seven counts of fraud, 12 counts of forgery and five counts of defrauding the government in connection with the payment of secret commissions.
Police charged Farewell, 60, a former environmental co-ordinator with Ontario Realty, with one count of breach of trust, seven counts of acting on forged documents, four counts of accepting a commission and one count of fraud.
The agency is also suing more than 40 individuals and parties for $47 million, alleging bid rigging, conspiracy, bribery and fraud in connection with contracts and questionable land deals.
In the civil suit that started almost six years ago, Banting admitted accepting $85,000 in kickbacks from Sirman's firm in exchange for recommending him for Ontario Realty contracts.
OPP investigators acted on a complaint received from the Ministry of the Attorney General in April 2000. Ontario Realty had raised concerns four months earlier about what it described as "irregular transactions" at the agency.
In the civil action, Ontario Realty included Sirman, Banting, Farewell and the Vaughan-based Gabriele group of related firms as defendants. None of those allegations in the civil case have been proven in court.
[COMMENTS BY DON B. -
[1] - Right off the bat I can see a problem, he was put in his position by Harris-ment and clear he acted as a axe man.
[2] - Mr. Miele is leaving early by only a few months, really makes me wonder why? What kind of pressure made this happen?
Why does no one know where he is going and why can't he be reached? ] |