SNC-Lavalin could pay $29.6M to settle Jacques-Cartier Bridge bribery case

The company and two former executives were charged with crimes including forgery and conspiracy to commit fraud against the government.

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SNC-Lavalin announced Friday it has reached a deal with prosecutors to settle bribery charges it faced in connection with a contract it obtained for work on Montreal’s Jacques-Cartier Bridge.

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If approved by a judge, the deal would see the engineering firm pay a $29.6-million penalty over three years.

In September, the company and two former executives, Normand Morin and Kamal Francis, were charged with crimes including forgery and conspiracy to commit fraud against the government.

The charges dated back to events that took place between 1997 and 2004. It was alleged the company had paid more than $2.3 million in kickbacks to obtain a $128-million contract for refurbishment work on the bridge.

Quebec’s office of criminal prosecutions (DPCP) had offered the company a chance to negotiate a remediation agreement from the outset, and the two sides announced they reached an agreement on Friday.

The DPCP said at the time that prosecutors can choose to negotiate a remediation agreement when they deem it to be in the public’s best interest.

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In this case, the DPCP had said it felt opting for an agreement could avoid a lengthy trial and would lessen the consequences on other employees within the company.

The agreement allows the company to keep doing business and bidding on public tenders with the Quebec, Canadian and foreign governments.

The details of Friday’s deal still need to be approved in court. Quebec Superior Court Justice Éric Downs is scheduled to hear the case over the course of three days next week.

In a statement, SNC-Lavalin said confidentiality restrictions prevent it from discussing other details of the case until the court proceedings are finished. The DPCP said the same in a separate statement.