Date: Wednesday, November 17, 2021

Time: 9:00 – 11:00 am PDT

The Anti-Corruption Law Program (ACLP) continues its series of monthly webinars in 2021 that feature industry experts who share ideas and insight with their peers to help public and private sector policy makers combat corruption more effectively.

On November 17th at 9:00 am PDT, join our group of distinguished panelists in a free webinar as they discuss the successes, failures and challenges surrounding the enforcement of financial crime – related laws in Canada.

The Liberal Party of Canada, which was elected in September as Canada’s new federal government, included in its platform a commitment to establish “Canada’s first nation-wide agency to investigate financial crimes, including insider trading, organized crime, and money laundering”. What should this Agency look like and what are the constitutional and practical issues to be resolved before it can be established?

Register Here

The Anti-Corruption Law Program (ACLP) public education series is a collaborative partnership with the Centre for Business Law, Transparency International Canada, and the International Centre for Criminal Law Reform & Criminal Justice Policy. To learn more about future ACLP events, please visit here.

Selected Discussion Topics:

• What is the rationale for the Canada Financial Crime Agency and what would  it do differently?
• What are the gaps in the current enforcement infrastructure and how might a new Agency address these?
• What should be the scope of the mandate of the proposed Agency?
• What impact does the current scope of federal/provincial authority have on the viability of the proposed Canada Financial Crime Agency?
• What roles would the RCMP, provincial police, municipal police and securities commissions play in addressing financial crime alongside the proposed Canada Financial Crime Agency?
• What lessons are to be learned from successful approaches in integrated law enforcement of financial crimes in other countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and France?
• Quebec and Ontario have established new integrated investigation and prosecution agencies to address financial crimes. How do these two agencies function and what are their successes and limitations?
• What tools and resources should the proposed Canada Financial Crime Agency require?
• What role might the private sector play in supporting the work of a National Agency in tackling financial crime?

Panelists:

• Anthony Cole, Partner, Dentons LLP, Calgary, AB and London, UK
• Peter German, Peter German & Associates Inc., Vancouver, BC
• Mary Inman, Partner and Head of International Whistleblower Practice, Constantine Cannon LLP, London, UK and San Francisco, CA
• Jennifer Quaid, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON

Panel Moderator:

• Peter Dent, President, Deloitte Forensic, Vancouver, BC

Panelist bios:

Jennifer Quaid is an Associate Professor and Vice-Dean Research at the Civil Law Section, University of Ottawa. Professor Quaid is a leading legal expert and scholar in organizational criminal liability nationally and internationally. Her scholarship, policy work and extensive public engagement focuses on when and how can law be used to stimulate good governance and ethical business practices, particularly in the prevention of serious harm flowing from the materialization of foreseeable operational risks, like corruption, fraud and failure to take appropriate measures to protect public safety and the environment. Among her current funded projects, Prof. Quaid is leading a 4-year comparative study of the use of non-trial resolution mechanisms in corruption matters that brings together researchers in Canada, France and Switzerland.

A member of the Bars of Québec, Ontario and New York, Prof. Quaid practiced law before joining the academy, first with the Department of Justice (Competition Law Division) and then with Sullivan & Cromwell LLP in New York and Melbourne. She clerked for the Honourable Frank Iacobucci of the Supreme Court of Canada. Her research interests Corporate Criminal Liability & Business Accountability, Criminal Law, Competition Law, AI & the Digital Economy, Anti-Corruption Law & Corporate Law.

Dr. Peter German, QC, is President of the International Center for Criminal Law Reform. A lawyer and member of the Ontario and British Columbia bars, he served as the RCMP’s Director General Financial Crime and Deputy Commissioner (West), and later Deputy Commissioner (Pacific) for Correctional Service Canada. He has various degrees including a Doctorate in Law from the University of London, focused on asset recovery.

In addition to investigating and managing high profile money laundering and corruption cases, Dr. German has taught at universities and colleges, and is the author of a legal text on proceeds of crime, published in 1998 and updated bi-monthly. He is also the author of Dirty Money reports prepared for the Attorney General of B.C., relating to allegations of money laundering in B.C.’s casino, real estate, and other sectors.

Dr. German practices law and is a consultant on criminal justice matters. He has lectured across Canada and abroad, as well as being a delegate to international forums. In 2008, he was the initial Canadian team commander, charged with recovering two kidnapped diplomats in Africa. He has numerous awards including those of Queen’s Counsel and Officer of the Order of Merit of the Police Forces.

Mary Inman is a partner at law firm Constantine Cannon, and has been representing whistleblowers under the various American whistleblower reward programs for over 24 years. She heads the firm’s international whistleblower practice from the firm’s San Francisco and London offices where she has attracted overseas whistleblowers from the UK, Europe and Asia on whose behalf she has filed tips under the American reward programs.

Mary is an expert in the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and represents several whistleblowers who have filed tips with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under its successful DoddFrank whistleblower reward program exposing bribery of foreign government officials by entities regulated by the SEC or operating in the US. Mary represents Silicon Valley whistleblower Tyler Shultz in connection with his tip to the SEC regarding Theranos’s violations of US securities laws as well as many other anonymous SEC whistleblowers who have exposed insider trading, misappropriation of funds, and improper inflation of assets, among other schemes to defraud US investors.

With the January 2021 passage of the US Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA), which includes a reward program within the Treasury Department for whistleblowers with information about violations of the US Bank Secrecy Act, Mary has a newfound expertise in the US money laundering laws and is poised to file her firm’s first tip on behalf of a whistleblower client with FinCEN under this new reward program. In addition to helping her clients expose bribery and money laundering, Mary also is well-versed in US tax laws and represents whistleblower clients bringing tips to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) under its whistleblower reward program for evasion of US tax obligations.

Many of Mary’s whistleblower clients serve as cooperating witnesses for many different US domestic and international enforcement agencies, not just the agency offering the financial reward. For instance, it is typical for her clients to cooperate with the SEC on securities fraud allegations, the US Department of Justice on related criminal charges arising from the whistleblower’s information and foreign regulators like the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as well.

Mary serves on the Advisory Board of the nonprofit Whistleblowing Canada Research Society and represents whistleblower clients who’ve filed tips with the Ontario Securities Commission under its whistleblower reward program.

Anthony Cole is the National Co-lead of Dentons’ Government Investigations group, and has represented clients in the context of internal investigations, prosecutions and law enforcement investigations, and civil forfeiture proceedings. He has been recognized in Chambers Canada in the area of White Collar and Government investigations, in particular, as an “expert in anti-bribery and anticorruption work.” He has substantial experience in conducting complex cross-border internal investigations, as well as compliance reviews, including within North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. He has also represented clients in international arbitration proceedings relating to corruption matters involving foreign government officials. Anthony is the current Chair of the Legal Committee of Transparency International Canada.

Peter Dent is a Partner in the Deloitte Forensic practice. Peter has over 25 years of financial crime experience working with clients conducting internal investigations and providing advice around anti-fraud and anti-corruption compliance frameworks, to enhance accountability, transparency and governance. Peter’s specialties include working with international organizations on financial crime risks, having worked in over 35 countries.

Between 2000 and 2004 Peter was the Team Leader of the Forensic Services Unit within the Department of Institutional Integrity of the World Bank Group in Washington, DC leading international fraud and corruption procurement investigations into World Bank financed projects.

Peter is the past-Chair of Transparency International – Canada. During this time, TI Canada released its first report on the vulnerability of real estate in Canada being used to launder the proceeds of crime, focused on the Greater Vancouver Area. Currently, Peter is part of TI Canada’s Beneficial Ownership Transparency Working Group, which released its second report on Canadian real estate and money-laundering, focused on the Greater Toronto Area.

Peter has experience working with the United Nations (UNDP and UNPS) evaluating and strengthening the accountability and transparency of their procurement processes. In the case of UNDP, Peter was specifically tasked with advising and assisting UNDP leadership in the wake of the Tsunami of December 26, 2004. In the case of UNPS Peter was responsible for the evaluation of their procurement processes in the wake of the Oil For Food investigation.

In addition, Peter was a faculty member for 15 years with the Director’s Education Program at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, where he lectured on a Director’s responsibility with respect to governance and oversight regarding internal investigations and financial crime prevention.

Early in his Deloitte career, Mr. Dent was on retainer to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commercial Crime Unit for 3 years. Mr. Dent provided advice on the conduct of financial analysis related to a wide spectrum of white-collar crime investigations. Peter was also a Police Constable with the York Regional Police Service in Ontario, prior to joining Deloitte.

Photo by Christian Wiediger on Unsplash.