Canada previously was the subject of some criticism for failing to vigorously enforce its foreign anti-corruption laws, but that is apparently changing with Canada’s filing of criminal corruption and fraud charges against two subsidiaries of Canadian engineering and construction giant SNC-Lavalin, as reported in the Wall Street Journal.  Canadian press, such as the Toronto Star, quote the family owners of SNC-Lavalin as saying “the charges are without merit”.

But the more relevant story for those of us who do business in Thailand is that no longer is it only the U.S. that is pursuing foreign anti-corruption cases; it’s not even only the U.S and the U.K. with its Anti-Bribery Act.  More foreign countries are more vigorously enforcing their foreign anti-corruption laws. And this creates a substantial challenge when doing business in Thailand, a country that ranks poorly in Transparency International’s index on perceived corruption and Norad’s Business Anti-Corruption Portal, which can be found here.