SNC-Lavalin bribed its way through Libya — then dragged Canada's PM into a scandal

SNC-Lavalin was one of Canada's largest engineering firms, building infrastructure in 50 countries. But between 2001 and 2011, it paid nearly $48 million in bribes to Libyan officials, channelled through Saadi Gaddafi, to win engineering contracts. It also bribed officials in Canada for bridge and hospital contracts. The corruption was a decades-long pattern, not a single bad decision.

When the RCMP investigation closed in, the company faced a catastrophic threat: a criminal conviction would bar it from federal contracts for 10 years. SNC-Lavalin and its lobbyists pressured the Canadian government to introduce a deferred prosecution agreement — a new legal tool that would let it pay a fine and avoid trial. The company's own executives pushed openly for political intervention.

The pressure campaign reached Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's office. In 2019, the Globe and Mail reported that Trudeau's team had pressured Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould to intervene in the prosecution. Wilson-Raybould resigned and testified that she had faced 'veiled threats.' The ethics commissioner ruled Trudeau had violated the Conflict of Interest Act. SNC-Lavalin eventually pleaded guilty to one count of fraud, paid a C$280M fine, and renamed itself AtkinsRéalis.