The Montreal engineering giant SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. is facing new allegations of corruption, which have surfaced in a French investigation into whether bribes were paid to clinch a project in Abu Dhabi.
The embattled firm has a subsidiary in France, SNC-Lavalin Europe S.A.S., which was headquartered in the northern city of Reims until last November.
A prosecutor in Reims opened an investigation into the company’s French operations last July.
In an interview with the Globe and Mail, the prosecutor, Fabrice Belargent, said he launched his probe after an external auditor spotted “anomalies” in SNC-Lavalin Europe S.A.S.’ accounting books.
The auditor reported that a $13.5-million sum that was supposed to have been used for projects in Europe appeared instead to have been paid to someone in the Middle East, Mr. Belargent said.
The Reims prosecutor said he investigated the matter until December, when the file was transferred to a specialized financial investigation unit in Paris because there were now allegations that it involved corruption of foreign agents.
The Reims newspaper L’Union, which first revealed the French investigation on Tuesday, said the allegations were linked to a gas-complex project in Abu Dhabi.
L’Union said French investigators executed a search warrant at SNC’s Reims offices last fall.
“We can confirm that there was an investigation in our offices in Reims a number of months ago that was related directly to those underway in Canada,” SNC spokeswoman Leslie Quinton said in a statement.
“We do not have any details on the progress of the French enquiry other than to say that we continue to co-operate fully with the authorities. We can also confirm that, to our knowledge, there have been no arrests or accusations stemming from the French investigation.
The latest revelations come as the Montreal blue-chip company has been reeling from allegations of wrongdoing reaching the upper tiers of management.
Former CEO Pierre Duhaime and former construction executive vice-president Riadh Ben Aïssa have been charged by Quebec’s anti-corruption squad with fraud, conspiracy and paying bribes in connection with the $1.3-billion contract granted to SNC-Lavalin to build a new hospital for Montreal’s McGill University Health Centre.
In a separate criminal investigation, Mr. Ben Aïssa was arrested and detained in Switzerland last year on allegations that he had a role in the payment of an estimated $160-million in bribes to Saadi Gadhafi, the son of the late Libyan dictator.
SNC announced last month a a company-wide amnesty program to encourage staffers to report potential corruption. Until the end of August, employees will not be fired or face claims for damages if they voluntarily report violations of the company’s code of ethics and didn’t directly profit from the wrongdoing.
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