Developments In White-Collar & Capital Markets Regulatory Enforcement

Regulators continue to try to "move the needle" in their pursuit of insider trading and other white-collar misconduct. Notably, the first court-imposed conviction for bribery under the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act (the CFPOA) was upheld by the Ontario Court of Appeal. While there were few notable securities enforcement cases, the Ontario Securities Commission (the OSC) appears to be capitalizing on the fact that courts support the use of circumstantial evidence to prove insider trading and tipping offences.

Developments in white-collar and anti-corruption enforcement

Enforcement authorities had a mixed record in prosecuting white-collar crime in 2017:

• R v. Karigar: The Ontario Court of Appeal upheld Canada's first court-imposed conviction under the CFPOA. The accused was found guilty at trial of conspiring with other persons to pay bribes to foreign officials and later sentenced to three years' imprisonment. The court held that even though