Fraud Enforcement in Canada is Stepping Up

Canada historically had a fairly-earned reputation for being a fraudster's playground. This reputation resulted from, among other things, arguably inadequate and underutilised regulatory and criminal fraud enforcement regimes. Perceived shortcomings of the Integrated Market Enforcement Team of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), which charged only nine individuals between 2004 and 2008 despite a $30m annual budget, and at least the appearance of injustice resulting from investigation blunders in major securities fraud matters such as Sino-Forest and Bre-X, raised serious questions about the ultimate effectiveness of Canada's fraud prevention and enforcement regime. Published in the April-June 2016 issue of Risk & Compliance Magazine.