Whistleblowers blow whistle on themselves

Only in Canada would this kind of abject foolishness be applauded.

Not only did they get slapped with a ten million plus fine, they have to pay their own lawyer, whose take on the matter is yup, they did it, they blew the whistle on themselves.

Hope they're not overpaying her.

Obviously those mandatory ethics courses they've made part of MBA programs all over the place are paying off... in corporate executives turning themselves in for practices that have always been considered routine, and still are, in most of the world.

Certainly in Chad, which consistently makes the top twenty list in world corruption leadership.

Generally considered an erstwhile ally of the Nations of Virtue, I might add. Look for them picking up Hollande's baton in Mali.

The thumbnail version of the tale is that a couple of young eager beavers, the Tyab brothers, hooked up with Bay Street wheeler-dealer Brad Griffiths as their financial backer to try to land some oil exploration contracts in Chad.

In order to expedite said mission, they cast about for palms to grease in order to help smooth the process, and ended up paying a company owned by the wife of Chad's ambassador to the US two million dollars for consulting services.

The Germans have a handy word for that; schmiergeld.

Canadians should be acquainted with that word. It became a part of the Canadian lexicon when the Karl-Heinz Schreiber affair was in the news a few years back.

That was the little episode where Karl-Heinz, emissary at large for German conglomerate Thyssen-Krupp, was passing cash-stuffed envelopes to former Canadian PM Brian Mulroney.

Karl-Heinz was paying Mulroney for consulting services.

Ironically, in this Chad case, another former Canadian PM, Jean Chretien, played a pivotal role in shmoozing the contract along.

So greasing those palms, or hiring the right consultants, depending on how you look at it, obviously worked, because a couple of years later Griffiths Energy was planning a $300 million IPO.

And if those Canadian lads hadn't hired the right consultants, somebody else would have.