Canada-wide warrants have been issued for Americans Robert Barra and Dario Berini and British national Shailesh Govindia, all of whom face charges under the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act. Govindia was also charged with one count of fraud.
OTTAWA – The RCMP have charged two Americans and one Indo-British businessman with attempting to bribe public officials in India as part of a landmark prosecution that has already sent an Ottawa-area businessman to prison for three years, reported CBC News.
Investigators with the RCMP’s National Division announced Wednesday bribery charges against Robert Barra and Dario Berini, the former CEO and COO of Cryptometrics Inc., the U.S. parent company of Cryptometrics Canada, which is based in Ottawa. U.K. national Shailesh Govindia, who worked with Cryptometrics, faces two charges, including bribery and fraud.
Canada-wide warrants have been issued for Barra, Berini and Govindia, all of whom face charges under the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act.
Last month, Nazir Karigar of Ottawa, was sentenced to three years in prison for his role in a conspiracy to pay kickbacks to public officials at Air India, including a government minister, in a failed bid to win a $100-million contract for security and facial recognition technology for the affiliated Canadian and U.S. tech companies.
“We have a mandate to investigate domestic and international allegations of corruption of foreign public officials. This investigation demonstrates the RCMP’s commitment to combatting international corruption, said Gille Michaud, the RCMP assistant commissioner who heads the National Division, in a news release Wednesday.
The news has been welcomed by watchdog groups, which in the past have been critical of the RCMP and Canada over a perceived lack of action against corporate corruption.
“It is important to send the message that anyone who conspires to bribe foreign public officials, where there is a connection to a Canada, will face justice in Canada,” forensic accountant Peter Dent told CBC News. Dent, who chairs the watchdog group Transparency International Canada, said his organization is pleased with today’s news.
“No matter of their nationality and location … corruption is a scourge to global business and economic development,” Dent said. “It is a global problem and Canada must play its part.”
A previous RCMP attempt to reach outside of Canada using the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act failed. In April, a judge in Toronto stayed a bribery charge against Abul Hasan Chowdhury, who once served as interior minister in Bangladesh.
Justice Ian Nordheimer ruled that since Canada has no extradition treaty with Bangladesh “Canada does not currently have jurisdiction” over the man for the time being.
Chowdhury was charged with conspiring with a number of executives of the Canadian engineering giant SNC-Lavalin to rig the bid for a contract to oversee construction of Bangladesh’s $3-billion Padma Bridge.
The criminal case against SNC officials accused in the case has yet to go to trial.
