A former SNC–Lavalin vice-president found guilty of bribing foreign officials—including the son of late Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi—and pocketing millions of dollars lost his appeal on Monday and was given 48 hours to report to prison.
Sami Bebawi, 76, appealed his 2019 conviction on the grounds that evidence gathered through an RCMP undercover operation that targeted his former lawyer should not have been admitted.
The Court of Appeal agreed with the trial judge that while police should have obtained judicial authorization earlier in their investigation, the evidence collected was admissible.
The trial judge ruled that the communications obtained from a wire tap of Bebawi’s lawyer was not a professional secret. The wiretap was launched after a government witness told police that Bebawi had offered him a multimillion-dollar bribe to change his testimony….