Facing Bribery Charges, SNC-Lavalin Hires New General Counsel
Charlene Ripley joins SNC as the global construction firm continues to fight federal fraud and corruption charges connected to an alleged bribery scheme in Libya, one that has entangled Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
September 19, 2019 at 01:08 PM
3 minute read
Scandal-weary SNC-Lavalin Group Inc., a global engineering firm and one of Canada's largest construction companies, has hired Charlene Ripley to succeed retiring general counsel and executive vice president Hartland Paterson.
Ripley joins SNC as the Montreal-based firm continues to fight federal fraud and corruption charges connected to an alleged bribery scheme in Libya, one that has entangled Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Ripley begins her new job on Oct. 15 and will report to SNC interim president and CEO Ian Edwards, according to an announcement on Wednesday. Edwards said in a prepared statement that Ripley's "experience will be invaluable for SNC-Lavalin as we continue our path to deliver on our new strategic direction."
While she most recently served as a director at Canadian energy company Keyera, Ripley worked for six years as the executive VP and general counsel of Vancouver-based Goldcorp Inc., a gold mining company. She oversaw the firm's anti-bribery compliance program along with the legal, ethics and compliance, human resources and internal audit departments.
Earlier in her career, Ripley served as an executive and top lawyer for two Texas-based energy companies, Linn Energy Inc. and Anadarko Petroleum Corp., according to her LinkedIn profile. She declined an interview request through a spokesman for SNC.
Ripley's soon-to-be predecessor, Paterson, took control of SNC's legal department after former GC Rejean Goulet retired in 2015, on the heels of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police hitting the company with fraud and corruption charges for allegedly paying nearly $50 million in bribes to Libyan government officials.
Trudeau became a part of the scandal in February, when allegations surfaced that he'd been meddling in the prosecution of SNC. In August, an ethics commissioner found that Trudeau had "directly and through his senior officials, used various means to exert influence over" Canada's attorney general in an attempt to pressure her to let SNC negotiate a settlement with prosecutors and avoid criminal charges.
Trudeau later issued a statement in which he said he disagreed with the commissioner's conclusion that all contact with the AG was improper, explaining that he'd reached out because "thousands of jobs are on the line and communities stand to suffer."
But he added that "the buck stops with me, and I take full responsibility for everything that happened, and accept the report."
The controversy reignited earlier this week when reports, which turned out to be unfounded, at least for now, began swirling about the Royal Canadian Mounted Police having launched an investigation into Trudeau's involvement in the case against SNC.
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