The trial of three Quebec businessmen accused of having corrupted representatives of the Philippine government in order to win a public contract opened Wednesday at the Montreal courthouse, with the testimony of one of their tormented former collaborators who agreed to collaborate with justice.
Posted at 8:56 p.m.
A former representative in Asia for the Montreal company Ultra Electronics Forensic Technology told the jury on Wednesday that his former employer had resorted to paying bribes to obtain favors from well-placed people in the Philippine government. The goal was for the Philippine National Police to purchase technology developed by the company to analyze firearm projectiles found at crime scenes.
“Allegations of bribery and corruption in the Philippines are true. I did that, I’m sorry. For a long time I acted illegally, I was corrupt, and it was wrong,” Paul Wrensted said.
A former employee of a steakhouse restaurant in Bangkok, Thailand, Mr. Wrensted was recruited as sales manager for the Asia-Pacific region and head of the Bangkok office for the Montreal company. He was the first witness called to the stand in the trial of three former executives of Ultra Electronics Forensic Technology, Robert Walsh, René Bélanger and Philip Timothy Heany, who are accused of fraud and bribery of a foreign public official.
PHOTO PATRICK SANFAÇON, THE PRESS
René Bélanger, former director of Ultra Electronics Forensic Technology
In her opening statement, the federal crown prosecutor, Me Marie-Ève Moore, explained that the Philippine state paid more than the fair value for this contract, the price of which was inflated. “The amount of the bribes was added to the contract price. This is fraud,” she said.
PHOTO PATRICK SANFAÇON, THE PRESS
Philip Timothy Heany, ancien dirigeant d’Ultra Electronics Forensic Technology
Anxious and tormented
In his testimony, Paul Wrensted explained that he stopped working for the Montreal company in 2019, while an internal investigation was underway into the practices of certain employees. In 2021, he was contacted by Canadian police officers who were investigating the firm’s actions in the Philippines.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
René Bélanger in 2010 alongside a ballistic identification device.
“I told them I had been involved in this,” he told the court.
He said he put pressure on agents who represented the company in the Philippines to use the money they were paid as commission to pay various officials. The goal was to “ensure our technology is chosen and the process happens as quickly as possible.”
Mr. Wrensted says he signed an immunity agreement with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), which stipulated that the information he provided would not be used to charge him.
He says he was anxious, tormented and suicidal after his job ended in 2019. “I was taking medication for depression, anxiety, for sleeping, for panic attacks. I doubled and tripled the doses. I assessed myself and went to the pharmacy,” he said.
He had several reasons to collaborate with the police. “I was afraid of going to prison, I wanted the truth, and I wanted all of this to end,” he explained to the jury.
