Ex-SNC-Lavalin executive Sami Bebawi loses appeal, must report to prison

Feb 14, 2023 | 1:55 PM

MONTREAL — A former SNC-Lavalin vice-president found guilty in 2019 of bribing foreign officials and pocketing millions of dollars has lost his appeal.

Sami Bebawi, 76, appealed his conviction of the grounds that evidence gathered through an RCMP undercover operation targeting his former lawyer should not have been admitted.

His lawyers also argued that some of the acts for which he was convicted shouldn’t have been considered fraud as they didn’t put his victims financial interests at risk.

The Quebec Court of Appeal rejected those arguments, but the court gave Bebawi more time to pay back the money he earned from his crimes working for the Montreal-based engineering company.