The Montreal ballistics analysis company accused of bribing Philippine government officials to obtain public contracts with local police has reached an agreement with federal Crown prosecutors to admit its wrongdoing, pay a penalty and avoid a criminal trial.
Posted at 4:54 p.m.
Charges were laid by way of summons last week against Ultra Electronics Forensic Technology and four of its former officers or employees based in Montreal, following an investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). According to the police, bribes were paid through a commercial agent in the Philippines in order to win government contracts.
The Montreal company developed and marketed in the 1990s the IBIS system, for “Integrated Ballistics Identification System”, a computerized analysis system that makes it possible to link a firearm projectile found at a crime scene to the gun that shot him.
IBIS has revolutionized firearms crime investigation and has been adopted by police departments in approximately 70 countries.
A case that goes back more than five years
On Wednesday morning, representatives of Ultra Electronics Forensic Technology explained to the Court of Quebec that the company had entered into a “suspended prosecution agreement” with the Public Prosecution Service of Canada.
This new program, also known as a “remedial agreement”, allows companies that are accused of a crime to admit the facts, clean up internally and pay a penalty, in order to avoid a criminal trial and a conviction that could close the door to public markets. The agreement must now be approved by the Superior Court of Quebec.
“We expect this agreement to be announced shortly and further details to be released as the court approval process progresses,” the company’s parent said in a message to The Press.
“No one involved in this case is still employed by the company and the contract is no longer in force. The matter in question dates back over 5 years, and we have confidence in the current management, culture, systems and oversight mechanisms of the company,” the missive continues.
However, these agreements only apply to businesses. Former employees or managers Robert Walsh, Tim Heaney, René Bélanger and Michael McLean will still have to have their trial for fraud and corruption of a foreign public official at an indefinite date.
Former employees and executives still accused
Deferred prosecution agreements were created by the Trudeau government in 2018. It is this type of agreement that SNC-Lavalin had tried, without success, to obtain to avoid a criminal trial in the corruption file in Libya, which caused a crisis in Justin Trudeau’s cabinet and led to the departure of former minister Jody Wilson-Raybould from the Liberal caucus.
Such agreements already existed in several countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom. The first suspended prosecution agreement in Canadian history was reached last May, in another case involving SNC-Lavalin and a corrupt Federal Bridge Corporation official.