By Canadian Press

Federal public prosecutor asks court to strike SNC-Lavalin plea for deal

Feb 8, 2019 | 3:46 PM

OTTAWA — The federal director of public prosecutions is officially asking a court to toss out a plea from SNC-Lavalin to spare the company from criminal proceedings.

The director’s court filing is the latest twist in a dispute at the heart of high-profile allegations the Prime Minister’s Office leaned on former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould to intervene on the engineering firm’s behalf.

SNC-Lavalin faces legal trouble over allegations it paid millions of dollars in bribes to obtain government business in Libya, which would be a crime under Canadian law.

The company unsuccessfully pressed the director of prosecutions to negotiate a “remediation agreement,” a legal means of holding an organization to account for wrongdoing without a formal finding of guilt.

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The director told SNC-Lavalin in October that negotiating a remediation agreement would be inappropriate in this particular case, prompting the company to ask the Federal Court for an order requiring negotiations.

The Globe and Mail newspaper reported Thursday that SNC-Lavalin repeatedly lobbied Trudeau’s aides for a remediation deal and that his office pressed Wilson-Raybould to make it happen, bumping her from the attorney general’s post after she refused.

The Canadian Press