Mraiche Profited from Quick Sale of Property to UCP Government

A multimillionaire Edmonton businessman at the centre of a United Conservative Party government scandal involving allegations of corruption within Alberta Health Services’ procurement system bought a property last spring and sold it three months later to the province, netting a profit of $300,000.

Alberta land title documents show a numbered company owned by businessman Sam Mraiche purchased a commercial industrial property at 14425 124th Ave. NW in Edmonton for $1.7 million cash on May 27, 2024. That same numbered company sold the property to Alberta Infrastructure on Aug. 26, 2024, for $2 million cash.

Alberta Infrastructure Minister Peter Guthrie has said he was one of several UCP ministers, including Premier Danielle Smith, and senior political staff, including Smith’s chief of staff, Marshall Smith (no relation), who accepted luxury NHL playoff tickets from Mraiche in the spring of 2024.

Allegations by fired AHS CEO

The extent of Mraiche’s relations with members of the UCP government fell under deeper scrutiny after the Globe and Mail first reported earlier this month that Athana Mentzelopoulos had been fired as CEO of Alberta Health Services just two days before she was to meet with the province’s auditor general to discuss an internal investigation she had ordered conducted into procurement practices at AHS.

Mentzelopoulos alleges AHS was politically pressured to overpay companies for for-profit services, including surgeries in a private surgical facility.

The Globe later reported Alberta Health Minister Adriana LaGrange stripped AHS of its authority to directly negotiate contracts with private surgical facilities.

Mentzelopoulos also alleges in a wrongful dismissal suit that Mraiche’s medical supply company, MHCare Medical, received more than $600 million in government contracts. She said she had expanded the internal investigation to look at the business relationship between AHS and MHCare.

MHCare is the same company that facilitated a $70-million contract for children’s painkillers during a national shortage from a Turkish pharmaceutical company. The ensuing boondoggle wasted tens of millions of dollars.

A Mraiche tie to Alberta Surgical Group

The numbered company owned by Mraiche that bought and then sold the Edmonton property to Alberta Infrastructure is listed as a voting shareholder in four corporations created by the founders of the Alberta Surgical Group, a private chartered orthopedic surgical facility on Edmonton’s south side.

In her suit, Mentzelopoulos alleges she was pressured by multiple government officials, including Marshall Smith, to extend a contract to Alberta Surgical Group, even though it wasn’t performing the number of specified surgeries and its billings were projected to exceed its contract by nearly $3.5 million.

None of the allegations have been proven in court and no statements of defence have been filed. Marshall Smith has strongly denied any wrongdoing. In a public statement earlier this month, Alberta Surgical Group said it was shocked and dismayed by the allegations, and it said the claims are false.

Mraiche’s lawyer did not respond to a Tyee request for comment on Thursday.

Guthrie to LaGrange: Step down

A week ago, as first reported by CBC, Infrastructure Minister Guthrie called on Health Minister LaGrange to step down until an investigation is completed into the allegations of political interference and kickbacks contained in the suit by Mentzelopoulos.

“If any of the information obtained appears to be criminal in nature, all materials must be turned over to the RCMP immediately,” Guthrie said in an internal memo leaked to CBC.

In an emailed statement Thursday, Guthrie said he learned of the land transaction with Mraiche only on Tuesday. He said that since 2015 the ministry has had the authority to make such purchases without the minister’s approval. And that is what happened in this case.

But “out of an abundance of caution, on (Wednesday) Feb. 19, 2025, I directed my department to launch an independent audit of this transaction to ensure all procedures were appropriately followed, and also notified the Auditor General should his office be interested in reviewing it as well.”

The property Mraiche sold for a near 18 per cent profit is next to north-central Edmonton’s Muriel Stanley Venne Provincial Centre, which is operated by Alberta Infrastructure.

An online search shows Infrastructure issued a request for proposal in July 2024 for renovations to the Venne building. The renovations were to start on Aug. 26, 2024, the same day the sale from Mraiche’s numbered company to Infrastructure was finalized. The RFP, however, was subsequently deemed “unawardable.”

The May 2024 land title document shows Mraiche bought the property from J.K. May Investments Ltd., a Winnipeg company. An affidavit sworn by Sherwood Park lawyer Bryan Ward states the property is worth $1.7 million.

The real estate listing says the defunct building’s parking lot has been under long-term lease to a “AAA” tenant, which Guthrie confirmed was his ministry.

The August 2024 land title sale document contains two affidavits. One is sworn by Wil Longard and attests that the property’s value is $2 million. Longard’s LinkedIn profile shows he is an “in-house solicitor” with Infrastructure.

It’s not known how the property jumped $300,000 in value in just three months.

The second affidavit also was sworn by Ward and attests that Mraiche is the director of 2262576 Alberta Ltd., the numbered company that bought and sold the property.

Smith and LaGrange deny wrongdoing

At a news conference Wednesday, Danielle Smith and LaGrange asserted they had done nothing wrong and blamed Mentzelopoulos of failing for eight months to provide evidence to support the allegations later contained in her lawsuit.

Both Smith and LaGrange insisted Alberta Health Services executives were responsible for all AHS contracting decisions, and they repeatedly asserted AHS was wilfully stalling the implementation of the government’s agenda to expand private surgical facilities.

A CBC/Radio-Canada reporter directly asked Smith and LaGrange for a yes or no answer to the question of whether they had accepted kickbacks. They both said no.

Smith announced that Andre Tremblay had been removed as deputy minister but will continue as interim CEO of AHS and official administrator in place of its board of governors, who were also fired along with Mentzelopoulos. Smith announced Darren Hedley will act as acting deputy minister of health.

An outside third party, yet to be determined, is to conduct an investigation in addition to the review now being conducted by Alberta auditor general Doug Wylie. Smith had previously said that AHS had already begun its own internal investigation but there was no mention of it in Wednesday’s news conference.

Another Nenshi call for a public inquiry

Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi on Wednesday repeated his party’s call for a judge-led public inquiry to ensure transparency and accountability.

The NDP had previously asked the RCMP to conduct a criminal investigation. The national police force has said it is conducting a review to see if such an investigation is warranted.

Nenshi scoffed at the investigations announced by Smith, saying there will still be conflicts and there will be no transparency because the third party will report back to Smith herself.

In another unusual twist to this complex and evolving story, Edmonton police Chief Dale McFee is to start a new job on Monday as Alberta’s top civil servant. He will serve as both deputy minister to executive council and the head of Alberta’s public service just as the government is gripped in the biggest scandal of its nearly two-year tenure.

But as The Tyee reported a week ago, McFee and the Edmonton Police Service, or EPS, have well-documented ties to Mraiche and his MHCare Medical company.

While the EPS and the Edmonton Police Commission acknowledged McFee accepted a ticket to an NHL playoff game, they have refused to say if the gift was from Mraiche.

Mraiche previously did not respond to a query from The Tyee about whether he hosted McFee at a hockey game.

If you have any information for this story, or information for another story, please contact Charles Rusnell in confidence via email.