First jail sentence in Canada for foreign corrupt practices

Nazir Karigar, a former agent of an Ottawa high-tech company  was sentenced on May 23, 2014 to a penitentiary term of three years for conspiring to bribe several Indian government officials in the first Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act (the “CFPOA” or the “Act”) case to go to trial. The conspiracy to bribe had as its purpose the winning of a tender for a multi-million dollar contract to sell facial recognition software to Air India, a state enterprise. Facial recognition software may play an important role in preventing the boarding of planes by unauthorized persons.

Sophisticated bribery schemes result in jail sentences

Superior Court Justice Hackland ruled that Karigar “had a leading role in a conspiracy to bribe Air India officials in what was undoubtedly a sophisticated scheme to win a tender for a Canadian based company.” The Court issues the following warning: “Any person who proposes to enter into a sophisticated scheme to bribe foreign public officials to promote the commercial or other interests of a Canadian business abroad must appreciate that they will face a significant sentence of incarceration in a federal penitentiary”.

In his reasons for sentence Justice Hackland stated that “The idea that bribery is simply a cost of doing business in many countries, and should be treated as such by Canadian firms competing for business in those countries, must be disavowed. The need for sentences reflecting principles of general deterrence is clear.”

For more, see

http://www.canadianfraudlaw.com/2014/05/first-jail-sentence-in-canada-for-foreign-corrupt-practices-recognition-of-the-seriousness-of-a-conspiracy-to-bribe/#.U4CB-QdxbWo.twitter

Kenneth Jull, Baker & McKenzie LLP,  is an adjunct faculty member, teaching "Financial Crimes and Corporate Compliance"