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By LegalMatters Staff • Senior officers with corporations could be given a 14-year prison sentence if they were involved in corporate fraud worth more than $5,000.
The same maximum penalty also applies if that fraudulent action affects the public market price of stocks, shares, merchandise or anything offered for sale to the public.
“Since corporations cannot be imprisoned, fines are given when firms are convicted of crimes,” says Ottawa criminal lawyer Céline Dostaler. “In the case of a summary conviction offence, the maximum fine is $100,000. For the more serious and indictable offences, the Code provides no limit on the fine that can be imposed.”
She explains that anyone who commits corporate fraud or abets another person in that act can be charged, adding there are three ways an organization can commit a crime.
“The most obvious way for an organization to be criminally responsible is if the senior officer committed the crime for the direct benefit of the organization,” says Dostaler.
She says the second way is if senior officials at the corporation direct others to undertake dishonest work.
“The third way an organization would be guilty of a crime is if a senior officer is aware employees are going to commit an offence but does not intervene, hoping the organization will benefit from the crime,” says Dostaler.
The Ontario Provincial Police includes a Serious Fraud Office to investigate this crime, she says.
“The office comprises both investigators and prosecutors, which deviates from the traditional approach of having a wall between the two key enforcement functions,” notes Dostaler.
