In July 2001, the president of American Bank Note Holographics pleaded guilty to a four-count federal criminal information. It charged him with conspiracy to defraud the U.S., a books-and-records violation, making false statements to auditors, and conspiracy to violate the FCPA. The charges arose from bribes paid on behalf of American Bank Note in Saudi Arabia.

Joshua Cantor was scheduled to be sentenced in 2003. Bail was set at $250,000 and he was ordered to surrender his “travel documents and other international travel papers.”

Cantor wasn’t sentenced in 2003. According to the court docket (available here), sentencing was postponed a couple of times. The last date the court set was December 6, 2006. Sentencing didn’t happen then, however, and no new date was ever set. So nearly nine years after pleading guilty to four bribery-related felonies, Cantor is out on bail without a sentencing date.

What’s life been like for him? Apparently normal. He travels a lot. Since 2003, the court has approved trips to Puerto Rico and Israel (twice each), Brazil, Canada, the British Virgin Islands, Spain, the Dominican Republic and Barbados.﻿ Presumably the trips are for business.

Meanwhile, according to the court docket, most of which is sealed, the case has been dormant for two years, with no new activity reported to the public.

What’s up with this case? Has Cantor slipped through the cracks in the federal criminal justice system? Or does his special treatment mean he’s somehow helping the government? Is he a cooperating witness in related bribery investigations?

There have been persistent rumors that Securency, the polymer banknote-maker half owned by the Reserve Bank of Australia, paid bribes and offered favors to win contracts in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Last month we heard unconfirmed reports about Australian federal police visiting Washington to meet with the DOJ’s FCPA team. Was a chat with Joshua Cantor, who’s from the same industry as Securency, on the agenda?

U.S. v. Cantor was filed on July 17, 2001 in the U.S. District Court, United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Foley Square), Criminal Docket #: 1:01-cr-00687-BSJ-1. The case is currently assigned to Judge Barbara S. Jones.