Two others were acquitted in the case.
One of the three former executives with a Montreal company who were on trial in a case in which they were accused of paying bribes to secure contracts in the Philippines was found guilty by a jury on Thursday.
The jury that heard the trial of Robert Andrew Walsh, 82, Philip Timothy Heaney, 65, both of Montreal, and René Bélanger, 62, of St-Lambert, emerged from their deliberation at the Montreal courthouse and only found Heaney guilty of the three charges he faced.
Walsh, a McGill University engineering graduate who created the groundbreaking ballistics technology behind the company, and Bélanger were both acquitted of all the charges they faced.
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). They each faced two counts under Canada’s Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act. They were 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.
They were also charged with fraud under the Criminal Code.
When the trial began in late October, prosecutor Marie-Eve Moore told the jury the Crown’s theory was that the accused allegedly paid bribes to secure contracts and then later added the cost of the bribes when they billed their clients.
The investigation was done by the RCMP and, in 2023, Michael McLean, 58, of Beaconsfield, another former UEFTI executive charged in the case, pleaded guilty to a section of Canada’s Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act. He received a 12-month sentence that he could serve in the community.
Heaney’s case will enter the sentencing stage at a later date.