At the start of the pandemic in early 2020, Alberta Health Services (Tyler Shandro) made the decision to source a $228m contract for personal protective equipment from a holding company that was run by Sam Hassan Mraiche.
The contact for Mraiche Holding Corporation was from another one of his companies, Carver PA, a corporation that “specializes in providing training to the petrochemical industry.” Supplies came from China and quality was so bad it made widespread news. AHS was paying 85¢ a mask from Mraiche Holding Corp. compared to 50¢ a mask from Acklands-Grainger. Mraiche Holding Corp. charged Alberta taxpayers 70% more for a piece of shit product.
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Mraiche immigrated to Canada from Lebanon with his parents. |
On December 6, 2022, premier Danielle Smith and then health minister Jason Copping signed a deal with Turkish company Atabay Pharmaceutical for 5 million bottles of children’s acetaminophen and ibuprofen to supply to Alberta pharmacies at a cost of at least $80m. 5 million bottles is about 10 to 14 times the entire national demand for children’s pain and fever medications. Alberta committed to purchase $70m worth of meds at $14 a bottle, twice the retail price. The other $10m evapourated in ‘internal costs’. Alberta only received 1.5m bottles of the 5 million paid for. Of that 1.5m, only a total of 4,700 bottles made it to community pharmacies for the public and 9,000 bottles made it into hospitals. Alberta ended up paying to store the rest, and has no way to recoup any of the money spent. Nobody will buy it. The sole-sourced contract importer, MHCare Medical, was owned by Sam Mraiche. Sam Mraiche has won more $430m in sole-source contracts from Albertans.
On May 10, 2022 Danielle Smith flew to Vancouver with two staffers and an entourage to watch a game in an elite private skybox with tickets that were gifted to her by private citizen Sam Jaber. Jaber was appointed to the board of Invest Alberta on November 22, 2023, by Smith. Sam Mraiche has an intimate, long-standing business relationship with Sam Jaber. The photo of the premier at the hockey game is a glimse into the sprawling crime network that Sam Mraiche built. In the back row, was Aaron Barner, senior executive officer for the Métis Nation of Alberta, then Sam Mraiche, then Andrea Sandmaier, the president of the Métis Nation of Alberta, and then Sam Mraiche’s wife.
Photos from the Globe and Mail showing Danielle Smith’s chief of staff, alongside the former Edmonton Chief of Police, sitting in a suite with Sam Mraiche in June 2024.
The Globe and Mail identified more than 60 civil proceedings in which Mr. Mraiche or his companies were involved. Court records show he has twice sued an opponent’s lawyers and twice been taken to court by his own lawyers over unpaid legal bills.
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