Exporting to the United States – A Team Canada Inc Publication
4.5 Bribery and corruption legislation
The United States, like most countries, has well-developed laws and regulations to prevent the bribery or corruption of its officials. The penalties for doing so can be severe.
Many nations also have laws intended to keep their own citizens from bribing or corrupting officials of foreign countries, and Canada is no exception. Our Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act makes bribing a foreign public official a criminal offence, and the Criminal Code makes it an offence to knowingly launder the property and proceeds of bribery, and possess such property and proceeds with knowledge of their origin.
Canadians can also be prosecuted if they conspire to commit these offences, aid or abet them, or counsel other people to commit them. Prosecutions for such offences take place in Canadian courts. For a plain-language guide to the legislation, you can download the pamphlet Keeping Corruption Out from Export Development Canada.
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