Bribes paid to a senior official | Role reversal in corruption trial

A former vice-president of SNC-Lavalin was found guilty Thursday of having participated in the corruption of a senior official in the early 2000s. For three weeks, his trial was the scene of an unusual reversal of roles: the accused becoming the accuser by trying to convince the jury that the real culprit was his boss at the time, Jacques Lamarre, a titan of Quebec Inc. who would remain “untouchable” to this day.

“The story is relatively simple, it is a crime of corruption,” explained Crown prosecutor Francis Pilotte at the opening of Normand Morin’s trial on January 23.

An engineer by training, the accused was formerly executive vice-president of SNC-Lavalin. Arrested in 2021, he was accused of defrauding the government, fraud and making forgeries, relating to the rigging of the call for tenders for the repair of the deck of the Jacques-Cartier Bridge, in October 2000.

Much of the facts were not in dispute at trial. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) discovered that SNC-Lavalin (which today changed its name to AtkinsRéalis) had paid a $2.3 million bribe to Michel Fournier, the former president of the Federal Bridge Corporation, in order to obtain a 127 million contract without real competition.

SNC-Lavalin negotiated a “deferred prosecution agreement” with authorities in 2022, a procedure that allows a company to admit the facts and pay a penalty while avoiding a criminal trial. She paid a fine of 30 million.

Michel Fournier, the former president of the Federal Bridge Corporation, pleaded guilty in 2017 to charges of defrauding the government and laundering the proceeds of crime. He received five and a half years in prison. But Mr. Fournier, former chief of staff of Jean Chrétien when he was leader of the opposition, held his tongue. He refused to reveal who his contact was at SNC-Lavalin.

It remained to be determined which individuals within the company had participated in the crime. Two former vice-presidents were arrested by the RCMP: Normand Morin and Kamal Francis. Mr. Francis announced his intention to plead guilty and testified for the prosecution at the trial of his former colleague Morin.

Crown prosecutors Francis Pilotte and Martin Duquette presented the jury with around a hundred documents and nine witnesses in order to establish the guilt of the accused. “We have faxes, letters, contracts, emails, memos, bank statements,” said M.^e Pilot.

“The conductor of this plan is Mr. Normand Morin,” he explained.

Kamal Francis, in his testimony, added. “The only person who knew Michel Fournier was Normand Morin! “, he said passionately.

“He’s untouchable”

In defense, Mr. Morin’s lawyers adopted an unusual strategy. M^e Nellie Benoit, M^e Jean J. Bertrand and M^e Simon Ghattas tried to prove that Jacques Lamarre, the former CEO of SNC-Lavalin who was never arrested by the police, would be the real culprit of the crimes of which their client was accused, possibly with his right-hand man Sami Bebawi , who is now in prison for another corruption case in Libya.

“Mr. Morin asserts that Sami Bebawi and/or Mr. Lamarre committed the offenses of which he is accused,” M. told the jury^e Bertrand.

Mr. Lamarre was CEO of SNC-Lavalin from 1996 to 2009. He is a Commander of the Order of Montreal and an Officer of the Order of Canada. He received the gold medal from Engineers Canada in 2008 and the Career Award from the Conseil du patronat in 2010.

Normand Morin’s lawyers revealed to the jury that when he was questioned by the police before his arrest, Kamal Francis had scribbled the name of Jacques Lamarre on a piece of paper, to indicate that he was involved in the scheme. However, he refused to say it out loud while it was being recorded and he refused to allow investigators to leave with the paper.

“Jacques Lamarre, he is untouchable,” declared Kamal Francis.

“Jacques Lamarre had a way of knowing everything that was happening in the company […]. Don’t ask me how, but he knew,” the witness added. Kamal Francis also told the jury that Mr. Lamarre had told him the amounts to be paid in relation to the Jacques-Cartier Bridge project.

“They were old friends”

Testifying in his own defense, Normand Morin said that it was at the request of the CEO that he became involved in the bridge project.

“Jacques Lamarre told me: you’re going to have to get involved in this,” he declared.

“I was doing this guy a favor, and then I’m being sued today. It’s fun, right? », said Normand Morin with a disappointed look.

Mr. Morin said that he was very surprised, during a visit to the site, to find that Jacques Lamarre and senior civil servant Michel Fournier already knew each other very well.

“They were very familiar, knew each other very, very well. When we arrived, it was “How is your wife? You’ve put on a lot of weight!” They were old friends,” he recalled. In his testimony, Mr. Morin also vigorously denied having been involved in the payment of the bribe.

His lawyers questioned the lead RCMP investigator in the case, Guy-Michel Nkili, about his decision not to meet Jacques Lamarre during the investigation.

“Were you forbidden from meeting Jacques Lamarre?

“Oh no, not at all, ma’am,” replied the policeman.

— No one would have said to you: Jacques Lamarre, we’re not touching that?

— I confirm 500%, I am independent in my investigations! », retorted the investigator, who today holds the rank of inspector.

Overlapping allegations

Normand Morin’s thesis is consistent with allegations already made by other former senior executives of SNC-Lavalin in other trials.

In another file, Sami Bebawi has already told the police that Jacques Lamarre was aware of the purchase of a yacht for the son of dictator Muammar Gaddafi with money from SNC-Lavalin. “Criss, he knew it, he approved it!” “, he already told an RCMP investigator at the Montreal courthouse.

Former vice-president Riadh Ben Aissa also declared in court that Jacques Lamarre had approved the payment of bribes in Libya.

Mr. Lamarre has always denied these allegations. He repeated on more than one occasion that if he had known how his subordinates behaved in this matter, he would have fired them.

Mr. Lamarre has already declared to The Press that he was ready to testify in court to rectify the facts, but that he was ultimately never called.

According to several sources consulted by The Pressthe possibility of filing criminal charges against Jacques Lamarre was the subject of intense discussions between police and Crown prosecutors, but the evidence was deemed insufficient to move forward.

At the end of Normand Morin’s trial, however, prosecutor Francis Pilotte asked the jury not to be distracted by the stories surrounding the former CEO.

“I would submit to you that this issue is becoming a distraction,” he pleaded. He asked the jurors to answer a simple question: “Did Mr. Morin participate?” »

The jury finally answered in the affirmative. Judge Eric Downs, who presided over the trial, will soon hear submissions on the sentence to be imposed.