Justice Hackland of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice issued
the first prison sentence last week under the Corruption of
Foreign Public Officials Act in the R. v. Karigar
case. In August 2013, we reported that Nazir Karigar was convicted
under the Act for agreeing to offer a bribe to a foreign official
contrary to section 3(1)(b). He was the first to be convicted under
the Act. On Friday, May 23, 2014, Justice Hackland sentenced
Karigar to three (3) years in prison.
The background to Karigar and highlights of the
decision regarding Karigar's conviction can be read in our
August 2013 Update: "First Conviction under the Corruption
of Foreign Public Officials
Act".1
The severity of the prison sentence imposed in Karigar
is a caution to all directors, officers and executives of Canadian
companies operating abroad that: (i) Canadian authorities have
intensified their enforcement of the Act, and (ii) Canadian courts
consider bribery of foreign public offices to be
