Former SNC-Lavalin chief pleads guilty in bribery case
Former SNC-Lavalin CEO Pierre Duhaime pleaded guilty Friday to helping a public servant commit breach of trust.
Following his plea, Duhaime, 64, was sentenced to 20 months house arrest and 240 hours of community service.
Fourteen other charges he faced were dropped.
Duhaime was set to go on trial this week for the bribery scandal around construction of a $1.3 billion super-hospital in Montreal.
SNC-Lavalin, Canada’s biggest engineering and construction management firm, has been mired for years in allegations of domestic and foreign bribery.
In 2012, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police filed an affidavit that tied former SNC-Lavalin executive Riadh Ben Aissa to more than $160 million in alleged bribes paid to Libyan officials in exchange for contracts.
Swiss authorities arrested Ben Aissa and held him for 29 months. They released him as part of a 2014 plea deal after he forfeited about $40 million in cash and property.
In 2013, the World Bank barred SNC-Lavalin from bank-funded projects for ten years because of alleged corruption in Bangladesh and Cambodia.
The FCPA Blog
http://www.fcpablog.com/blog/2019/2/4/former-snc-lavalin-chief-pleads-guilty-in-bribery-case.html