Tuesday, March 16, 2010

A Canadian Corruption Scandal?

A coalition of NGOs recently requested that Blackfire Exploration, a privately owned Canadian exploration and mining company headquartered in Calgary (here), be investigated for potential violations of Canada's Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act (CFPOA) based on alleged improper payments made to the Mayor of Chicomueselo in the State of Chiapas, Mexico.

For more on the NGOs claims, including its letter to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and documents the NGOs claim support its allegations, see here.

Among other things, the NGOs state in the letter that Blackfire "provided the mayor with [...] benefits including airline tickets for himself, his family and his associates. These payments and other benefits were apparently made in response to the Mayor’s demands for 'favours'". According to this report in The Calgary Herald, Blackfire "decided to stop the 'ridiculous propositions' after the mayor asked for Blackfire to set up a sexual affair with a Playboy model."

For more about the CFPOA, see here for a prior post.

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