The Montreal company specializing in ballistics analysis, which promised millions of dollars in bribes to Filipino officials, including a minister and his brother, in order to win contracts with the police will have to pay $10.5 million in the part of an agreement that will save him from being prosecuted in Canada.
This is what we can learn from an agreement concluded by Ultra Electronics Forensic Technology with federal prosecutors, which was approved by the Superior Court of Quebec.
This is the second remediation agreement, also called “suspended prosecution agreement”, concluded in Canada since their addition to the Criminal Code in 2018. In the first case, provincial prosecutors in Quebec had reached an agreement with SNC-Lavalin about corruption in its contract to repair the Jacques-Cartier bridge.
In this case, the agreement requires Ultra Electronics Forensic Technology to pay approximately $10.5 million, cooperate with investigations, update prosecutors on the implementation of the agreement, and comply with an anti-corruption program. supervised by an external auditor hired at the company’s expense.
The court approved the agreement in February, but it was not until May 16 that the final decision, whose The Canadian Press has obtained a copy, has been returned.
Located in Montreal, in the borough of Saint-Laurent, Ultra Electronics Forensic Technology specializes in ballistic identification tools. It sells its products to police forces around the world to help them solve crimes committed with firearms on their territory.
“We welcome the approval of the remediation agreement which is tied to a contract in the Philippines,” company president and CEO Alvaro Venegas said in an email.
“No one involved (in this story) is still with the company today. The incident in question occurred more than five years ago, and we have since implemented significantly improved management, culture, systems and controls.
$17 million contracts at stake
In September 2022, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) announced that fraud and corruption charges had been laid under the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act against the company and four of its executives: Robert Walsh , Philip Timothy Heaney, René Bélanger and Michael McLean.
Individual lawsuits against the executives continue, while charges against the company are stayed and will be dropped if the company meets the criteria of the remediation agreement.
The Agreed Statement of Facts attached to the court ruling reveals that from 2006 to 2018, two high-ranking company officials were involved in a scheme to bribe Filipino officials to obtain contracts worth $17 million with the Philippine National Police.
Just under $4.4 million was allegedly paid to cover up the scheme, but “the exact amounts of the bribes, as well as to whom they were paid, are not available in the evidence”, indicates the ‘Statement of Facts.
We can still learn that the bribes were promised to officials and other people “sufficiently well placed to exercise some influence”.
Ronaldo Puno, who served as Secretary of the Department of Interior and the Philippine government from 2006 to 2010, is believed to be one of those involved in the scheme. The statement of facts specifies that Mr. Puno was “a key person in order to unlock the budgets necessary to procure” the flagship products of the ballistic analysis company.
The judgment also states that between September 2006 and January 2018, two senior company executives requested the assistance of “commercial agent” Rizalino Espino in Manila to help conclude the contracts with the police.
Mr. Espino’s company, Concept Dynamics Enterprises, was to receive commissions on a percentage of all contracts, “a substantial part” of which was intended to be kickbacks.
The statement said Mr. Espino recruited two local businessmen to help with the corruption program because of their “close relationship” with Mr. Puno and his brother Rodolpho Puno, who was then chairman of the Philippines Road Board.
The statement of facts states that for 12 years, Mr. Espino and an associate were given “wide latitude” by Ultra Electronics employees “to work on paying bribes to officials and their surroundings”.
But the scheme fell apart when Ultra’s president received a letter in April 2018 from a former sales agent who alleged corrupt practices.
By this time Ultra had been acquired by a new parent company in the UK. The company cooperated extensively with the RCMP and UK authorities during the investigation and also fired the employees involved in 2019.
More than $10 million to pay
The Public Prosecution Service of Canada released a statement on the remediation agreement on May 17, saying Ultra would have to pay a fine of $6,593,178 and a surcharge of $659,318, in addition to the seizure of a amount of $3,296,589 for the benefit derived from the wrongful conduct.
He specifies that the Superior Court of Quebec “believes that the approval of this agreement will encourage companies to voluntarily disclose wrongdoings”.
The Prosecution Service guidelines state that remediation agreements “may be, in appropriate cases, an alternative to litigation.
“They also help hold companies accountable while reducing the risk of future breaches and harm to third parties, such as employees, investors or victims. »
Remediation agreements can only be entered into with organizations and are not available to individual defendants.