On April, 2019 Bondfield is granted court protection from creditors, citing liquidity problems and more than 200 lawsuits against it from unpaid subcontractors.Cole Burston/The Globe and Mail
January, 2012
Vas Georgiou leaves his senior executive job at Infrastructure Ontario (IO) after the agency becomes aware of his involvement in a false invoice scheme at a Toronto university.
January, 2013
Mr. Georgiou is appointed chief administrative officer of St. Michael’s Hospital, which was not told why he left IO.
April, 2013
St. Michael’s announces a shortlist of construction companies to bid on its redevelopment – PCL, EllisDon and Bondfield Construction Co. Ltd. Mr. Georgiou is part of a four-member executive committee that approved the shortlist.
August, 2013
The three companies are invited to submit bids.
January, 2015
Bondfield wins the contract.
Sept. 15, 2015
The Globe and Mail reports that Mr. Georgiou was involved in the scheme to defraud a Toronto university. It will later be revealed that the same day, someone searched for key words in a secret e-mail account at Bondfield, including “Vas Georgiou,” and later deleted more than 5,000 messages.
November, 2015
St. Michael’s fires Mr. Georgiou after a Globe investigation reveals he was involved in two business ventures with Bondfield chief executive officer John Aquino while he was evaluating potential bidders on the hospital project.
December, 2015
Bondfield sues The Globe, claiming $125-million in damages and saying the articles falsely implied the St. Michael’s contract was obtained through corruption and collusion. Bondfield does not disclose the deleted e-mails during the litigation. The case has not proceeded since Bondfield was put under bankruptcy protection.
Insurer says it isn’t liable for finishing Bondfield renovation
September, 2018
Bondfield struggles to pay subcontractors, leaving a dozen public-sector projects in Ontario behind schedule, including the 17-storey patient-care tower at St. Michael’s that was supposed to be finished in November, 2017.
October, 2018
Bondfield announces it has “removed” John Aquino as CEO and replaced him with his younger brother, Steven Aquino.
December, 2018
Project Co., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bondfield managing the St. Mike’s project, is placed in receivership.
April, 2019
Bondfield is granted court protection from creditors, citing liquidity problems and more than 200 lawsuits against it from unpaid subcontractors.
November, 2019
Zurich Insurance Group, which provided surety bonds for public-sector contracts awarded to Bondfield, sues John Aquino, alleging he “misappropriated” or misused funds that should have been reserved to pay subcontractors and suppliers. Mr. Aquino later says in a statement of defence that Zurich’s suit is “groundless.”
December, 2019
St. Michael’s gets court approval to retain a new construction manager for the patient-care tower and to pay subcontractors directly, ending Bondfield’s role on the project.
March 6, 2020
Lawyers for the hospital and its bankers file a motion for Zurich to pay all outstanding accounts for labour and materials on the construction project.
March 10, 2020
Zurich discovers the existence of the secret e-mail account at Bondfield that it says shows that John Aquino received insider tips from someone involved in the St. Mike’s bidding process before Bondfield won the bid.
April 13, 2020
Ontario Superior Court Justice Glenn Hainey orders a number of people – including current and former Bondfield employees as well as Mr. Georgiou – to preserve any records concerning the secret e-mail account.
Mid-April, 2020
St. Michael’s opens two floors of the still unfinished patient care tower to provide critical-care beds for COVID-19 patients.
April 16, 2020
Zurich sues John Aquino, Bondfield, Mr. Georgiou and Unity Health (which St. Michael’s Hospital is part of). It accuses the two men of “unlawfully colluding” on the bidding for the redevelopment project and asks the courts to rule that it no longer has to pay for the construction work.
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