Recent high-profile cases in the areas of foreign corruption, price fixing, deceptive marketing, insider trading, fraud and sexual assault in the workplace are examples of financial crimes. This course examines the ways in which criminal, regulatory and administrative law prevent harm in the conduct of commercial affairs. Cases such as SNC-Lavalin have demonstrated the intersection of alleged financial crimes with politics.
The role of media in covering financial crimes is studied in each lecture, which includes short film clips of movies that portray true crimes. Hollywood movies such as “The Wolf of Wall Street” (2013), may neglect to tell the story about the impact on victims. Hollywood movies based on true financial crime stories include “Catch Me If You Can” (2002), "The Informant" (2009), "American Hustle" (2013), “The Big Short” (2015), “Deepwater Horizon” (2016), “Gold” (2017), “Dark Waters” (2019), and “Blackberry” (2023). Documentaries such as “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room” (2005), “Inside Job “(2010), “Inside Lehman Brothers” (2018), “The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley” (about Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes (2019), “The New Corporation: The Unfortunately Necessary Sequel” (2020), “Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King” (2022), “Downfall: The Case Against Boeing" (2022), “The Talented Mr. Rosenberg” (2022), “Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street” (2023), and “Bitconned” (2024) portray byzantine schemes. Gender and diversity in corporate compliance is highlighted in films such as “Inventing Anna” (2022), and “She Said” (2022).
A core concept of this course is that risk management and compliance will lead to higher financial rewards. The priorities inherent in risk management must be related to a theory of justice which is formulated from behind a conceptual veil of ignorance where persons do not know their own wealth, position, gender, race or attributes (Rawls A Theory of Justice). Curiously, the issue of gender and racial diversity has not been in the forefront of most writing about risk management, compliance, or white collar crime. This course attempts to address that gap by encouraging dialogue and research about the link between compliance and both gender and racial equality in each of the eight conceptual parts.
The course is designed to cover both litigation skills in the area of financial crimes and corporate compliance skills with respect to risk, governance and mergers.
Part I, “Risk Management and Justice” explores the relation between risk, profit, and corporate scandals. An example is the case against Boeing where investigators reveal how Boeing’s alleged priority of profit over safety could have contributed to two catastrophic crashes within months of each other. Risk assessment and compliance is now mandated by statute in areas such as money laundering which gained attention after Toronto Dominion Bank paid a $3 billion fine in the United States. Artificial intelligence poses new challenges and risks in the area of financial crimes. A mathematical risk matrix is developed which balances “precautions taken to avoid the event” versus “potential gravity of impact”.
Part II, “Models of Governance and Regulation” considers corporate governance as defined by the BCE case and the revised CBCA section 122(1.1). The “love-hate” relationship between corporate social responsibility and the role of government regulators is explored. The expansion of administrative monetary penalties and the role of regulatory offences in addition to true financial crimes is analyzed within a pyramid model based on burdens of proof ranging from beyond a reasonable doubt (99%), clear and convincing evidence (75%) and the balance of probabilities standard (50.1%). In the context of regulatory offences, the decision in R. v. Greater Sudbury (City) 2023 SCC 28 is used a case study of a fatal accident concerning the proper interpretation of Ontario's Occupational Health and Safety Act and the role of the defence of due diligence. Behavioral research is applied to the concept of foreseeability which is used to solve hard legal problems in a vast array of doctrinal fields, including regulatory offences.
Part III, "Levels of Responsibility: Corporate versus Individual” reviews corporate liability concepts using case studies such as Global Fuels (2013), SNC-Lavalin (2019) and CFG Construction (2023). The philosophical rationale for corporate liability is discussed with questions such as should corporations be criminally liable for offences arising from corporate culture?
Part IV, “Types of Financial Crimes and Violations” examines specific types of financial crimes including foreign corrupt practices such as bribery in relation to nuclear safety (Nordion 2016), facial recognition technology (Barra 2021), and e-services (Arapakota 2023).The general criminal offence of fraud is a topic in itself. Competition offences such as price fixing (Canada Bread 2023) wage fixing, and violations such as deceptive drip pricing (Cineplex 2024) are studied. In the context of Competition law, the constitutionality of the reverse onus in the ancillary restraints defence is examined as well as the abolishment of the efficiencies defence. Securities offences such as insider trading and trading in securities while prohibited (Tiffin 2020) are analyzed alongside the stories from cases such as QuadrigaCX and Bridging Finance Inc.(2024) Students are encouraged to tailor make the course to their own areas of interest by choosing a topic for the research paper in that area.
Part V, “Compliance and change behavior” uses behavioral research to effect change at operational levels. Compensation models including paid whistleblower awards are analyzed.
Part VI, “Zone of non-discovery, internal investigations and deferred prosecution agreements” deals with internal investigations in the “zone of non-discovery by government”. The Nordion investigation is used as a case study of internal investigations and SNC-Lavalin is used as a case study of deferred prosecutions.
Part VII, “Inspections, Investigations, and Rights” reviews Charter rights as they may apply in relation to dawn raids, search warrants, privilege claims, and interviewing potential suspects. Remedies are reviewed including potential exclusion of evidence (McColman 2023, R. v. Zacharias, 2023 SCC 30, R. v. Pike, 2024 ONCA 608) and stays of proceedings (R. v. R. B. 2025 ONSC 153).
Part VIII, “Remedies and Sentencing” is the last topic which is the mirror side of risk management. This topic is linked to the earlier study of the causes of crime and non-compliance.
