OTTAWA - The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled the World Bank has immunity under international law and won't have to hand over its documents to a Canadian court hearing a corruption case involving ex-SNC-Lavalin employees.
The international financial institution's refusal to submit to an order signed by a trial judge was addressed by the high court, which found in its favour today in a unanimous decision.
The case involves Kevin Wallace, a former senior official with the Montreal-based engineering giant.
He is charged in a case of alleged corruption in the granting of a lucrative supervision and advisory contract for the building of a multi-purpose bridge over the Padma River in Bangladesh.
The RCMP announced in September 2013 that charges of bribing a foreign official had been filed in Toronto against Wallace and three other SNC-Lavalin employees.
Also that year, the World Bank, which had funded the project, prohibited SNC-Lavalin and hundreds of its subsidiaries from having access to institution-funded projects for the next 10 years.
