The SNC-Lavalin Group, which owns a 39 per cent stake in Malta Mediterranean Link Consortium Ltd, which, in turn, owns a 40 per cent shareholding in Malta International Airport, has identified its holding in MIA as an asset it may put up for sale “in the near term”.

Malta Mediterranean Link is comprised of Vienna International Airport – the majority stakeholder with a 53.24 per cent interest; SNC-Lavalin Inc., with 36.13 per cent and Bianchi & Company (1916) Ltd, a Maltese firm, owning the remaining 10.63 per cent. SNC-Lavalin contributed approximately $24 million to the consortium’s total investment in MIA.

But facing financial difficulties from a failed Libyan investment, Chief Financial Officer Alain-Pierre Raynaud told analysts earlier this month that the company had identified its MIA shareholding, as well as stakes in New York’s Astoria 1 and 2 power plants as assets the company may be prepared to let go of “in the near term”.

The source of the company’s financial turmoil, according to reports, is a project the group abandoned in Libya two years ago amid the rebellion against dictator Muammar Gaddafi. The company, Canada’s largest engineering and construction company, earlier this month cut its annual profit forecast and made the surprise disclosure of a possible US$45.6 million loss from a client’s attempt to draw on a credit line for the Libya work.

Former CEO Pierre Duhaime, who quit in March 2012, was arrested eight months later by the Quebec anti-corruption unit and formally charged with fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud and forgery in February. His lawyer pleaded not guilty on his behalf.

SNC cut its forecast this month after posting a surprise second-quarter loss. The company booked the C$47 million “risk provision” after a client unexpectedly attempted to draw on a line of credit in connection with an undisclosed Libyan project that was halted in 2011. SNC also posted a loss of C$70.1 million in the oil and gas unit related to a fixed-price project in Algeria.

Libyan projects at the time of Gaddafi’s removal from power included an airport, a prison and a water line network known as the Great Man-Made River, according to SNC’s 2010 annual report. The report described the prison, the Guryan Judicial City, as “the country’s first detention centre to comply with international human rights standards”.

Earlier this year, a number of SNC Lavalin employees were accused of paying US$160 million in bribes to obtain business in Libya, including the purchase of luxury yachts for the son of the late dictator Muammar Gaddafi, according to a Royal Canadian Mounted Police search warrant.

“It is alleged that these sums of money were paid as compensation for having influenced the granting of major contracts to SNC-Lavalin Int.,” Cpl Brenda Makad, a member of the RCMP’s Ottawa-based anti-corruption squad, wrote in the sworn statement.

For example, she wrote that SNC-Lavalin had transferred $11.4 million and $1.65 million to a bank account in Malta. The funds were then transferred to accounts in Geneva, Milan and Malta held by a company called Dorion Business Ltd, which was controlled by Gaddafi. The transfer was labelled “Consultant commissions paid by the Societé Canadienne S&C Lavalin”.

In one instance, SNC-Lavalin allegedly transferred $16 million into an account at Fimbank First National in Malta. From there the money was sent to Geneva’s Crédit Agricole and the Arab Banking Corp. in Milan.

The 59-page RCMP statement had been released by the courts at the request of three Canadian newspapers, the Globe and Mail, the National Post and La Presse.

The Canadian warrant, which allowed the RCMP and Swiss authorities to raid SNC’s Montreal headquarters last April, also details the search for evidence of plans to move Saadi Gaddafi surreptitiously to Mexico, with the help of Canadian consultant Cynthia Vanier.

Vanier has been languishing in a Mexican jail for almost 15 months since questions about an attempted smuggling emerged.

An SNC Lavalin spokeswoman, Leslie Quinton, said the release “contains information and unproven allegations received by the authorities in an investigation and submitted to a judge to obtain a search warrant”.

“We wish to resolve this situation quickly before the courts,” Quinton wrote, “and will continue to do everything possible to help authorities get to the bottom of things as quickly as possible”.

But the warrant quotes emails RCMP say are from Vanier to Stephane Roy, an SNC controller and vice-president at the time, suggesting that if the company wanted to remove its name from the dubious venture of extracting Saadi Gaddafi from Libya, “there is another way to do this. However, there would be additional costs”.

There are also references to emails between Roy and Vanier concerning the creation of false identities for Saadi Gaddafi and his family.

According to the warrant, the man who orchestrated most of the dealings with Saadi Gaddafi was Riadh Ben Aissa, SNC’s executive vice-president of construction, who had access to offshore bank accounts that directed money to Gaddafi’s accounts in places like Milan, Malta and Geneva using companies based in the British Virgin Islands.

“It is alleged that these sums of money were paid as compensation for having influenced the granting of major contracts to SNC-Lavalin Int.,” wrote Cpl Makad, who executed the warrant.

The RCMP were looking for information about construction projects successfully won by SNC, including the Great Man-Made River Dam, Benghazi airport, the rehabilitation of Benghazi Lake and the controversial prison known as Judicial City.

SNC earned hundreds of millions of dollars on these deals, and was still engaged in Libyan projects when civil war broke out in 2011.

Ben Aissa is also alleged to have directed his controller to purchase and renovate a condominium for Saadi in Toronto, and to treat him like a king on his visits to Canada. Other expenses included the purchase of yachts, including one now on sale for $28 million.

Ben Aissa resigned from SNC last February, and was arrested in Switzerland two months later for money laundering. He remains in custody, but through his lawyers has denied all wrongdoing.