Three former senior executives with a Montreal company that specializes in ballistics technology were able to recover the money they shelled out in bribes to secure contracts in the Philippines by adding what they spent to the final bill, a prosecutor said at the start of a jury trial on Wednesday.
Marie-Eve Moore, who is prosecuting the case with Carlie Norris at the Montreal courthouse, made the comments while summarizing what will be heard during the trial of Robert Andrew Walsh, 82, Philip Timothy Heaney, 65, both of Montreal, and René Bélanger, 62, of St-Lambert.
All three of the accused were senior officers with a company that was first called Forensics Technology Inc. and later called Ultra Electronics Forensic Technology Inc. (UEFTI).
“This company sells a technology to law enforcement agencies in many countries. Basically, when bullets are found on crime scenes, the technology takes a forensics image, kind of like a fingerprint, and it is run through a database that is shared among the agencies that have purchased this technology,” Moore said. “The goal is to see if the image can be matched and possibly solve a gun-related crime.
“This technology sold by UEFTI is called Integrated Ballistic Identification Systems or IBIS.”
The accused face two counts under Canada’s Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act. They are alleged to have offered or given benefits, between 2013 and 2018, to public officials in the Philippines or to other individuals who could influence public officials who made decisions on contracts.
Moore said the accused are also charged with fraud under the Criminal Code and that it is alleged to have taken place between 2006 and 2018.
“We will present you with evidence that, through the corruption, Mr. Walsh, Mr. Heaney and Mr. Bélanger defrauded the Philippines. How was it done? The amount of money for bribes was added to the final contract paid by the people in the Philippines when they actually paid for IBIS. Therefore, the Philippines was defrauded by paying more for what they were buying,” Moore said, adding many documents will be brought into evidence.
Four witnesses are expected to testify during the trial, including another former employee of the company. Moore said he was a participant in the plan to bribe officials while he worked with the company.
The other three witnesses are investigators with the RCMP.
The trial will be presided over by Superior Court Justice Yvan Poulin. The accused are represented by Jeffrey Boro, Dominique Shoofey and Eric Sutton.