Failing to promptly disclose evidence at a 2019 trial was enough for judges who ordered a new trial in a bribery case that has languished in the courts for 14 years, said Blacklock’s Reporter..Executives with an Ontario software firm are accused of plotting large cash payoffs to win an Air India contract in an investigation that dates from 2007..“A fair trial is a trial which satisfies the public interest in getting at the truth,” wrote the Ontario Court of Appeal. Judges cited prosecutors’ errors in failing to promptly disclose evidence at a 2019 trial and ordered a new hearing..“A fair trial is a trial that appears fair not only from the perspective of the accused, but also from that of the community,” wrote the Court. “It is not the most advantageous trial possible from the accused’s point of view, nor is it a perfect trial.”.Executives with Cryptometrics Canada are accused of conspiring to pay a fortune in bribes to Air India employees and that country’s Minister of Civil Aviation to win a security contract. Cryptometrics developed facial recognition software it wanted to sell to the airline, the Court was told..Evidence at the 2019 trial showed Cryptometrics executives met with a go-between in a New York City hotel and proposed paying $200,000 in bribes to Air India staff and a total $500,000 to India’s aviation minister “plus the possibility of an additional $1.5 million at a later date plus some shares.”.Canadian prosecutors learned of the case on anonymous tips through the U.S. Department of Justice in 2007. One executive to date has been convicted..Charges were filed under the Corruption Of Foreign Public Officials Act passed by Parliament in 1998..Cryptometrics Canada stood to benefit from any contract, though the alleged conspiracy was discussed in New York, and none of the executives charged live in Canada..“The alleged conspiracy was about Cryptometrics Canada, a Canadian company, obtaining a contract to supply its biometric recognition system to Air India through the unlawful means of paying bribes,” wrote the Court of Appeal..The Library of Parliament in a 2013 Legislative Summary of the Act said Canada “asserts jurisdiction over the bribery of foreign public officials when the offence is committed in whole or in part within its territory,” including benefits to a Canadian-based contractor..The Act was first used in the 2005 prosecution of Hydro-Kleen Group Inc. of Red Deer, Alta. Executives pled guilty to making cash payoffs to a U.S. Customs officer at the Calgary International Airport. Hydro-Kleen was fined $25,000..Western Standard
