Financial Crimes and Corporate Compliance

Recent high-profile cases in the areas of foreign corruption, price fixing, deceptive marketing, insider trading, fraud and sexual assault in the workplace are examples of financial crimes. This course examines the ways in which criminal, regulatory and administrative law prevent harm in the conduct of commercial affairs. Cases such as SNC-Lavalin have demonstrated the intersection of alleged financial crimes with politics. 

The role of media in covering financial crimes is studied in each lecture, which includes short film clips of movies that portray true crimes. Hollywood movies such as “The Wolf of Wall Street” (2013), may neglect to tell the story about the impact on victims. Documentaries such as “Titan: The OceanGate Disaster” (2025), and “Lac Megantic: This is not an Accident” (2025) show the tragic side of risk management.

A core concept of this course is that risk management and compliance will lead to higher financial rewards.  The priorities inherent in risk management must be related to a theory of justice which is formulated from behind a conceptual veil of ignorance where persons do not know their own wealth, position, gender, race or attributes (Rawls A Theory of Justice).  Curiously, the issue of gender and racial diversity has not been in the forefront of most writing about risk management, compliance, or white collar crime. This course attempts to address that gap by encouraging dialogue and research about the link between compliance and both gender and racial equality in each of the eight conceptual parts.

The course is designed to cover both litigation skills in the area of financial crimes and corporate compliance skills with respect to risk, governance and mergers.

Part I, “Risk Management and Justice” explores the relation between risk, profit, and corporate scandals.  An example is the case against Boeing where investigators reveal how Boeing’s alleged priority of profit over safety could have contributed to two catastrophic crashes within months of each other.  Risk assessment and compliance is now mandated by statute in areas such as money laundering which gained attention after Toronto Dominion Bank paid a $3 billion fine in the United States.  Artificial intelligence poses new challenges and risks in the area of financial crimes. A mathematical risk matrix is developed which balances “precautions taken to avoid the event” versus “potential gravity of impact”.

Part II, “Models of Governance and Regulation” considers corporate governance as defined by the BCE case and the revised CBCA section 122(1.1). The Supreme Court of Canada majority judgment in Lundin Mining Corp. v. Markowich, 2025 SCC 39 is a watershed decision that enhances the importance of compliance within publicly traded corporations.  The “love-hate” relationship between corporate social responsibility and the role of government regulators is explored. The expansion of administrative monetary penalties and the role of regulatory offences in addition to true financial crimes is analyzed in the context of recent constitutional challenges such as Canada (Commissioner of Competition) v Google Canada Corporation and Google LLC, 2026 Comp Trib 10.  Behavioral research is applied to the concept of foreseeability which is used to solve hard legal problems in a vast array of doctrinal fields, including financial crimes.  

Part III, "Levels of Responsibility: Corporate versus Individual” reviews corporate liability concepts using case studies such as  R. v. J. Cote and Son Excavating Ltd. 2025 BCSC 2540. The philosophical rationale for corporate liability is discussed with questions such as should corporations be criminally liable for offences arising from corporate culture?

Part IV, “Types of Financial Crimes and Violations” examines specific types of financial crimes.  Foreign corrupt practices such as bribery in relation to nuclear safety, facial recognition technology, and most recently software development (Arapakota 2025 ONCA 660, heard by the Supreme Court of Canada in April of 2026) are reviewed. The general criminal offence of fraud is illustrated by cases such as  R. v. Aquino 2026 ONSC 984. Competition offences such as price fixing, wage fixing, and the relationship with AI systems are studied.  Competition violations such as deceptive drip pricing (Cineplex 2026 FCA 10) and abuse of dominant position are linked to the constitutional challenge in Google .  Securities offences ranging from insider trading to fraud (Sharpe v. Ontario Securities Commission  2026 ONSC 1394) are analyzed. Students are encouraged to tailor make the course to their own areas of interest by choosing a topic for the research paper in that area.

Part V, “Compliance and change behavior” uses behavioral research to effect change at operational levels. Compensation models including paid whistleblower awards are analyzed.

Part VI, “Zone of non-discovery, internal investigations and deferred prosecution agreements” deals with internal investigations in the “zone of non-discovery by government”. The Nordion investigation is used as a case study of internal investigations and SNC-Lavalin is used as a case study of deferred prosecutions.

Part VII, “Inspections, Investigations, and Rights” reviews Charter rights as they may apply in relation to dawn raids, search warrants, privilege claims, and interviewing potential suspects. For example, regulatory demands for records may violate section 8 of the Charter as being overbroad as held in Binance Holdings Limited v. Ontario Securities Commission 2025 ONCA 751(leave to appeal granted by the S.C.C.). Remedies are reviewed including potential exclusion of evidence  and stays of proceedings.

Part VIII, “Remedies and Sentencing” is the last topic which is the mirror side of risk management. This topic is linked to the earlier study of the causes of crime and non-compliance.  Corporate criminal sentencing is exemplified by the case of R. v. J. Cote and Son Excavating Ltd.2026 BCSC 626.