The Decibel - The businessman at the heart of Alberta’s health care controversy

Episode Date: December 4, 2025

It’s not unusual for business owners to forge ties with governments, but there are rules around conflicts of interest when it comes to procurement. In February, 2025, an Alberta senior public servant stepped forward with allegations of political interference in the awarding of large health contracts. These allegations prompted investigators, auditors and opposition politicians to look closely at the ties between Premier Danielle Smith’s government and an Alberta businessman, Sam Mraiche.Mraiche’s company, MHCare, had been awarded hundreds of millions of dollars worth of procurement contracts from Alberta Health Services. A Globe and Mail investigation found that the connections between Mr. Mraiche, purchasing officials, and senior Alberta political figures have existed longer – and are more extensive – than than previously reported.Today, Carrie Tait, a reporter with The Globe’s Calgary bureau, and Tom Cardoso, an investigative reporter with The Globe, are on the show to talk about their investigation into the ties between a serial entrepreneur and the Alberta government.Questions? Comments? Ideas? E-mail us at [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

So fall of 2022, Canada and North America generally are in the throes of a triple-demic, as it was called at the time, right? It was COVID, it was flu, RSV, and it all but wipes out the North American supply of children's fever and pain medication. Tom Cardoso is an investigative reporter with the globe. In December 2022, Daniel Smith, who at this point had been Premier of Alberta for two months, after winning the United Conservative Party leadership race announces that Alberta is going to pave its own way and they're going to procure 5 million bottles of children's pain medication from a Turkish pharmaceutical company.

What goes undisclosed at the time is that there's an intermediary party involved in this deal. We learned that a company called MHCare Medical Corporation is involved in supplying this medication, so they're buying it from this Turkish pharmaceutical company and supplying it to Alberta Health Services. We learned that the deal is worth 70 million. And we learn that the person at the center of this deal, a man named Sam Rache, the CEO of

MHCare Medical, has these deep ties to the province. That $70 million deal for children's pain medication was one of a series of contracts worth more than $600 million with Sam Marash's medical company, MHCare Medical Corp. Well, around early 2023, MHCare's name surfaced as tied to this deal. It was never part of the government announcement. but it popped up. Samarach's name never came up until the summer of 2024. That's Carrie Tate, a reporter in the Globe's Calgary Bureau. So around, well, hockey season in 2024, I kept hearing this chatter of senior government

officials, senior political staff in the premier's office, we're going to hockey games with Sam Marash or MHCare in his box seat. And we kind of brushed this off, you know. People go hockey games. It's part of doing business. But it kept building and building and building. And where it really expanded was in early 2025, in January 2025, the Alberta government fired the CEO of Alberta Health Services. And that's where then we started to hear that there was a potential lawsuit on the horizon. And once we got a hold of those allegations, that's where everything really spilled out into the public light. Athana Mencelopoulos, the former CEO of Alberta Health Services, alleged in this wrongful dismissal

lawsuit that bureaucrats may have crossed ethical lines around conflicts of interest related to deals with MHCare. None of those allegations have been tested in court. Most levels of government in Canada have rules around conflicts of interest, especially around spending taxpayers' money. Governments are supposed to award contracts based on merit. who's best position to deliver a product or service? Who can offer the best price?

Over the course of several months, Tom and Kerry, along with our globe colleagues, Stephanie Chambers and Mark McKinnon, have been reporting on the extent of the ties between Sam Mareche and the Alberta government. Today, Tom and Carrie are on the show to talk about what they learned. I'm Cheryl Sutherland,

and this is the Decibel from the Globe and Mail. Tom, Kerry, thank you so much for making the time. Thanks for having us. Thanks for having us, Cheryl. So Tom and Carrie, you just published this big investigation that you worked on alongside our colleagues, Stephanie Chambers and Mark McKinnon, which looked at potential conflicts of interest between the Alberta government and this man, Sam Muresh.

Let's start by learning a little bit about who Sam Marech is. What can you tell us about him? He's a businessman. He's a philanthropist. And he is someone who has lived many lives. over the course of his career. So we've reconstructed portions of his life from court records, from corporate filings, from other types of public documents. And what that offers is, you know, these little slices into his life at different points. So we know that when he was 19 years old,

he was convicted of a crime, which was trafficking in a credit card that had been illegally obtained. We know that a few years later, he goes bankrupt. He says in a sworn statement that he he was gambling and had lost something like $120,000 through his gambling. So Sam is a, you know, he had a really tempestuous early period in his life, but after that period, things really start to click for him. He found this oil and gas maintenance company himself, and he begins to have all of these business ventures that we can piece together from, again, corporate filings, other records. And we also went through his, courts records. He has left behind a string of legal actions. So we identified more than 60

civil proceedings in which he or as companies were participants, you know, and those really offer a lot of insight into his businesses and his ventures. So in one case in Brazil, he's been embroiled in property disputes with rural residents who allege that invaders, some of whom are armed, told them to leave a parcel of land they occupied. This being a property dispute, you know, that question never really got adjudicated, but Mr. Meraich's company, for what it's worth, has denied that anyone was threatened or that any of his representatives acted improperly. But yeah, Mr. Moraesh is, you know, he's had many businesses. He's had many enterprises. What really defines him is that he is, you know, a serial entrepreneur and someone who is really engaging in various different

business activities in any given time, including later on medical supplies. All right. So from your investigation, you talk about how he is an oil and gas guy, but then when COVID hits, he becomes kind of a major supplier of PPE. When did he start first working with the Alberta government on health care procurement? The records we have are incomplete, but what we know is that as early as late March 2020, so this is within a couple weeks of the World Health Organization declaring a pandemic, he's already finalizing deals with Alberta Health Services, which is a major, major. integrated health system in North America, a very large purchaser for millions of dollars worth of masks, gowns, and other protective personal equipment. And that's a relationship that is going to stretch for the next several years. MHCare is going to become a very important supplier, particularly of PPE for Alberta Health Services. Okay, yeah. Do we know how he gets that first contract with the AHS? We're not sure how he gets the first contract. We do know that somewhere along the

lines, that he develops a relationship with the chief procurement officer at AHS. That man's name is Dritinda Prasad. And that becomes important when we get to sort of the current controversy, because a lot of the questions that the former CEO of Alberta Health Services was asking was, did Mr. Moresh have contacts within this organization? Were there conflicts of interest? And so even seeing glimpses of that relationship in the COVID era sort of foreshadows what's to come. Okay. So then in December of 2022, there's this deal to get children's pain medication, which you talked about in the intro, Tom. But can you remind us what happened there? And why is it a big deal? Right. So the children's pain medication deal, it's not so much about

the deal itself as what came afterwards. So for one, the medication was very, very slow to arrive. MH. Care was tied up in these health Canada, import approvals, these, you know, licenses took forever to be issued. And by the time the medication started to enter the country, the shortage, you know, again, no children's pain or fever medication on pharmacy counters, it was mostly gone. And so a lot of this medication was never used. Out of the five million bottles that Alberta had committed to, they received 1.5 million, and only a fraction of that was ever used. So that's the first issue. But then later on, we learned that there were these other issues with this purchase. For one, there were these concerns that the person spearheading

this deal, Jatendra Prasad, had these relationships with MHCare that complicated senior staff at AHS's understanding of what had gone on with that deal. Mr. Prasad, as it turns out, had ties to Mr. MRAH and to MH Care that had not been disclosed at the time that that deal was made, raising these conflict of interest questions for senior officials at Alberta Health Services. Right. Okay. And just to reiterate that Dachendra Prasad was in charge of procurement at AHS. That's right. So how did MHCare get selected for this deal? Alberta Health Services and others who have been investigated, don't know. There has been documentation out of Alberta Services and then a retired Manitoba judge who the Premier appointed to look into this once the allegations spilled out

in public. Their conclusion, Alberta Health Services was they don't know how MH Care came to be part of the deal. The retired judge said there's, I believe it was documentation missing that would fill in those gaps. The procurement process, the government, purchasing process is extremely regimented and very bureaucratic because they are allocating, you know, tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars for individual contracts. So there are all of these layers of checks and balances to make sure that the money is being spent properly, that it's being allocated in a transparent and understandable way. And so there are supposed to be these documentation steps, these various processes to ensure that the company that receives a given

contract is, you know, able to fulfill the contract, does not have ties that would preclude it from receiving a contract without being in a conflict, that the people responsible for awarding the contract are not themselves in a conflict. Because again, it's tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars. So the fact that the documentation is missing, the reason the judge is pointing that out is because to him that's unusual. The procurement process is supposed to be, to some extent document, even giving the exigent circumstances of the pandemic or of a major shortage of children's pain medication. We obtained a confidential memo from January 2025 from the interim general counsel at

AHS, that that's where it indicates that Alberta Health Services could not identify how MHCare came to be part of the deal and that the commercial law team was not involved in the contract. That's something that Alberta Health Services obviously raised as a. red flag, particularly when you're dealing with a $70 million deal. So you both talked about Jitendra Prasad and Sam Marisha's relationship. Has Jitendra Prasad said anything about the nature of his relationship with Marash? Mr. Prasad has never commented to us about his relationship with Mr. Marash, but we do have

some insight into what he was telling Alberta Health Services because he had to file conflict of interest declarations in various years. His conflict of interest declarations never makes mention of MHCare. And it's really interesting, especially given what would later be discovered, which is that he had an MHCare email address. So we know that he had a relationship with MHCare, at least as early as November 2022. Okay, so Kerry, we know that Mauritius company MHCare has these big contracts with the Alberta government. And then you learned about his attendance at hockey games in the spring of 2024. Tell us what you learned. Well, so first we had learned and reported that he had hosted cabinet ministers and senior political staff.

But what was sort of new with our investigation is some new photos surfaced. And it showed ministers that had never publicly confirmed that they were guests of Mr. Moraesh. But we also saw the premier socializing in a box seat with where Mr. Marech, where Mr. Moraes, Horace is in those photos. And in the group of one set of the photos, there's five cabinet ministers, the premier, two senior staff and a man who was then the chief of the Edmonton Police Service, who's now Alberta's top bureaucrat. And we should add here that there is no picture of Marash and the Premier together. Can you just tell me understand? Like, what is the problem with politicians going to a hockey game at the expense of a business associate? I think it's important.

to draw a distinction between what the rules allow and what some kind of activity, what kind of impression it may give people. We spoke with a professor at the University of Manitoba named Paul Thomas. He's an emeritus professor of political science who specialized in ethics and governance. And his point was that even if, you know, accepting these hockey tickets was allowed under policy, under the rules, there's still an appearance. that has to be considered in what that's going to look like to the public, right? And so

the issue here is not, were rules broken, but more so what does accepting hockey tickets, what impression does that give the public? We'll be right back. So we know that in 2024, Danielle Smith was seen in the same

box at a hockey game as San Marej. What did you learn about how far back their relationship goes, Carrie? We were able to report that the relationship preceded Miss Smith's time as Premier. We obtained a copy of her private calendar that showed while she was a candidate for the leader of the UCP in August 2022. So again, before the Tylenol, before she was premier, Samarach was scheduled to host her for a dinner at his house. There was also a scheduled Zoom call with Danielle Smith, Samaray, and Juchinda Prasad. That was in August. And after she became Premier, there was still key interactions.

One of a key moment that our reporting uncovered was that he was in a hotel suite at the Calgary Fairmont Palliser on election night in May 2023. He was in the room with the Premier's most senior advisors, those trusted people that's there when you win or lose an election. So what does Danielle Smith said about her relationship with Samaraj? Her answer, when we've asked directly, has been consistent that she met with him a few times socially, and that's the same as she would do with anybody who's trying to forge a business relationship with the government.

And I have always said that I have seen him socially a handful of times, as I have with many, many individuals who want to do business with our government. But I meet with lots of business leaders, in no instance did Mr. Muresh ever talk to me about business, about contracts. What he was concerned about was racism against his Muslim community. What he was also concerned about was encampments in Edmonton and what we could do to improve the business environment. Tom, what has Sam Marech said about his relationship with Alberta political officials? In a letter, MHCare sent the government in April, MHCare talks. a little bit about this. They say that Mr. Moresh's, quote, interactions with government,

those in elected office and senior staff fit entirely within the established parameters of typical government relations for the CEO of a commercial entity. That's Mr. Moraes' position, as far as we understand it. For this story, Kerry and I sent Mr. Marech a detailed list of our findings and a long list of questions about, you know, his background, his business history, and his dealings with the Alberta government. A lawyer from Mr. Marech said that the, quote, majority, unquote, of those questions, quote, appear to bear no relevance to AHS procurement, nor do they appear to concern matters in the public interests, he said. He also said that they seem, quote, calculated to unfairly cast aspersions, he said, on Mr. Marech.

Mr. Marech's lawyer has also said that he, quote, labored hard since his youth to build successful and thriving businesses based solely on his work ethic and entrepreneurial instinct. Okay, so we have more connections to talk about. Carrie, can you tell us about the connection you discovered between Sam Marech and Alberta's Justice Minister? Right. Alberta's Justice Minister, his name is Mickey Amory. And he was on my early list of people that I had heard that attended hockey games with Mr. Moraesh.

He was also one of the people who never responded to my text messages, calls, that type of thing. There was never a chance where it made sense at a press conference for me to put that question. to him. However, in April of this year, I caught wind that he would be at a plaque unveiling in Red Deer. And in the courthouse, it wasn't publicly announced, which was a little bit odd. So I went to the courthouse and sat through the plaque unveiling. And I was the only media there. They were pretty aware of what I was hoping to speak to. And I, um, Mr. Amory stepped outside in the lobby with me and we had a short interview. Can you explain, um, your relationship with Samaray? Um, a, um, friendship, really. I don't know, uh, no, uh, no, no, no, business dealings,

no professional relationship whatsoever. How long have you guys been friends? Uh, very long time. Pardon? Very long time. Are you guys related? Yes. How are you related? Just family relations, intermarriages between families and whatnot. We come from small places in Lebanon. And I think just through family, really, it's loosely related, but we are, we do have relations. Okay, loosely related.

Carrie, what did you make of that interaction? First of all, I was thankful that Mr. Amory did step out and speak with me. And what really jumped out at me is that I then went on to ask, well, you know, you're friends, you're related, you're the justice minister. And there's a major lawsuit right now, a high profile lawsuit with the former CEO of Alberta Health Services, Athanmencillopoulos, suing the government for wrongful dismissal because of she alleges her investigations into conflicts of interest at the health agency and, you know, those ties with MS. H. Care. And what I was curious about was as somebody who had attended hockey games and these family-friend relationships, should he recuse himself from some issues related to this file. And we should add that, the Justice Minister Mickey Amory, his department is responsible for the government's response to the lawsuit. And so, yeah, this wrongful dismissal lawsuit involves

Athena Menzelopoulos. She's the former head of AHS, and she was fired at the beginning of 2025. Yeah, that's sort of where we talked about how this spilled out into the public, that she launched an investigation into some private surgical contracts that she alleges were overly generous. And then that sort of snowballed into poking around on contracts with other surgical companies that were negotiating with the government. and that we reported Mr. Muresh was a part owner. And then it also became this investigation into the conflicts of interest with people like Jutindra Prasad. And eventually it became a probe into all of M.H. Care's dealings with the health agency. So she alleges that the government officials put pressure on her to pursue deals that

she alleges were inappropriate or there was not enough information. The government counters that it fired her for not executing its agenda and that because she was incompetent. We should add that these allegations have not been proven in court. The Alberta government denies them. And also, Muresh was not part of this lawsuit. So another person in the mix is Marshall Smith, who was Danielle Smith's chief of staff until the fall of 2024.

What connection did you find there? Well, we found one really interesting connection. Back in May 2025, we published this piece that revealed that Mr. Smith was living in a $1.6 million house owned by Mr. Mresh's sister, a woman named Fatima Mresh. This was a five-bedroom, four-bathroom, new-billed home, steps from the University of Alberta in Edmonton. And we actually visited the house earlier this year. Hi. Oh, this is what reporting is all about meeting the street cats.

Hello. Wow. Yeah, so that's the house right there. Oh, whoa. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so there's this house. What else did you learn about the connection between Marshall Smith and Samarash? Well, days after Mr. Maratia's sister takes possession of the home in August 2023,

Mr. Marash's son, Khalil, is hired as a policy advisor in the government. And we actually obtained employment records for Khalil Mesh that show his contract was signed by Marshall Smith. And in fact, Mr. Smith goes on to sign the contracts and hire three of Mr. Mareh's nephews over the next year. Fatima Moresh, Mr. Marech's sister, and Kaleel Moresh, his son, neither of them responded to our request for comment. So, Tom, what has Marshall Smith said about the nature of his relationship with Sam Mesh? Well, when it comes to the house, Mr. Smith's lawyer told us earlier this year that the landlords for the property were appropriately compensated for its use. They did not tell us how much Mr. Smith paid in rent. And I should add that on the heels of Athena Menzelopoulos's allegations regarding pressure by government officials, including, she said, Mr. Smith, he has sued the globe and Ms. Menzellopoulos alleging defamation and has denounced. mismentalophilus allegations, which have not been tested in court. Okay, so Tom, Carrie, we learned a lot from your investigation.

And I think it's important that we recap it for everyone here. So, let's go. You've learned that Sam Moresh, who was awarded hundreds of millions of dollars of Alberta health contracts, was in a suite with Danielle Smith's closest advisors on the night she was elected. His sister rented a house to Danielle Smith's chief of staff, who then hired several of Marash's relatives. Multiple Alberta politicians, including Danielle Smith, were seen in a box at a hockey game that Marash was also seen in. And Alberta's justice minister, Mickey Amory, is related to Sam Marash. So what has been the reaction to your story? One of the most notable reactions I think came

from Nahed Manchi, the leader of the NDP. He really zoomed in on Mr. Marash being in the hotel. Hellsweet on the night of the May 2023 election. And the reason why he keyed in on that is that he argued he's won some elections in the past and he knows that the people in the room on those moments

are the people that you trust the most, the people closest to you. And why was Mr. Marech in the room that night? That's one thing that we're seeing the NDP sort of zoom in on. I think people

when they are looking at the investigation as a whole, can see some of the real or perceived conflicts of interest in a way that it's easier to understand when it's presented as one big picture rather than stories kind of coming every couple of weeks. And that brings up a lot of the questions of access and where people are wanting to learn more about that access, how it came to be and whether or not the company inappropriately benefited from having that access. Carrie, Tom, thank you so much for this investigation and thanks for coming on the show. Thanks for having me. Thanks. That was Carrie Tate, a reporter with the Globe's Calgary Bureau, and Tom Cardoso, an investigative

reporter with the Globe. That's it for today. I'm Cheryl Sutherland. Our producers are Madeline White, Michal Stein, and Ali Graham. David Crosby edits the show. Adrian Chung is our senior producer and Angela Pichenza is our executive editor. Thanks so much for listening and I'll talk to you soon.