A Windsor law firm is filing a class action lawsuit against SNC Lavalin and some of the company’s officers and directors.
Strosberg, Sasso, Sutts has been retained by a shareholder of the Quebec engineering company at the centre of the political scandal involving the Prime Minister's office.
The proposed class action has been filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on behalf of all persons, excluding certain persons associated with the defendants, who acquired securities of SNC during the period from Sept. 4 to Oct. 10, 2018.
The plaintiff alleges the defendants failed to disclose in a timely manner the decision of the Director of the Public Prosecution Service of Canada that it was not appropriate to invite SNC to negotiate a remediation agreement.
“Disclosure is the cornerstone of the Canadian capital markets,” according to Jay Strosberg, a managing partner at Strosberg Sasso Sutts LLP. “We look forward to SNC’s explanation as to why it delayed disclosure until October 10, 2018.”
Once this information was revealed, the law firm says the price of SNC securities dropped significantly, causing substantial damages to holders of SNC securities.
The plaintiff seeks $75 million in damages for negligent misrepresentation and liability for secondary market disclosure pursuant to Ontario’s Securities Act.
Securities holders wishing to obtain more information can visit https://www.strosbergco.com/class-actions/snc/.
The legal action is separate from any action involving SNC Lavalin on Parliament Hill.
Jody Wilson-Raybould has accepted the House Justice Committee's invitation to testify on the ongoing SNC-Lavalin affair on Wednesday, now that the government has waived solicitor-client privilege and cabinet confidence.
Her appearance will be the first time she speaks publicly and in detail in the 20 days since the allegations of political pressure being placed on her by members of the PMO in regards to an ongoing criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin, were reported in The Globe and Mail.
The committee has agreed to a request Wilson-Raybould made in writing on Monday: that she be granted an "extended opening statement" lasting 30 minutes during which she would be able to go through everything she recalls about communications she was involved in regarding SNC-Lavalin. Most opening statements at committees are limited to 10 minutes.
In her letter, Wilson-Raybould said that she is "anxious" to appear and wrote that she'd be happy to stay for as long as the committee wishes to answer questions.
Over the last few weeks the opposition parties have focused in on this scandal, with Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer calling it a "textbook case of government corruption with those at the very top of the prime minister's office implicated in what could very well be the obstruction of justice." The opposition Conservatives and New Democrats have sought to have Trudeau and several senior PMO staff believed to be central to the story testify, and a public inquiry called, with no success.
On Feb. 7, citing unnamed sources, The Globe and Mail reported that Trudeau's office pressed Wilson-Raybould to drop a criminal prosecution against SNC-Lavalin when she was attorney general. It was alleged that the PMO wanted Wilson-Raybould to instruct federal prosecutors to change course and pursue a remediation agreement rather than criminal prosecution in the corruption and fraud case against the Quebec engineering and construction giant. CTV News has not independently verified the story.
Remediation agreements — or Deferred Prosecution Agreements (DPAs) — can include having the company accept responsibility, denounce the wrongdoing, vow to implement corrective measures, and pay financial penalties.
In contrast, if the company was criminally convicted it would be banned from securing Canadian government contracts for a decade, potentially putting jobs on the line.
