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In 2008, Gadhafi was ostensibly travelling to Montreal and Toronto to conduct business and improve his English, at the invitation of SNC-Lavalin. He had helped the company secure billions in public contracts in Libya — thanks also to millions in bribes to Libyan officials, the RCMP has alleged — and visited Canada on three previous occasions. But he spent much of his time on other extracurricular pursuits, according to La Presse’s reporting.

For the duration of his stay, SNC-Lavalin hired Garda World, a Montreal-based company, to provide security for the dictator’s son, and they hired four bodyguards as contractors. That focus on security “degenerated,” a spokeswoman for the company, Isabelle Panelli, told the newspaper.

The bodyguards handled Gadhafi’s expenses and provided receipts to SNC-Lavalin, according to court testimony by an RCMP investigator. Transactions they wrote in as “companion services” in their expense reports would cost between $600 and $7,500 each. Close to $10,000 in services went to a single escort service in Vancouver. Other payments went to a Montreal strip club and covered events at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, such as box seats for a Spice Girls concert.

Photo by THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson

The investigation showed that SNC-Lavalin was writing off the expenses as associated with construction projects in Libya, La Presse reported, with the total bill for Gadhafi’s trip totalling nearly $2 million.

Roy had testified in court that expenses associated with the trip were justified, and that he had the receipts to prove it. The expenses were justified at the time, testified another former executive, Riadh Ben Aissa — who, meanwhile, pled guilty last year to a forgery charge associated with allegations that SNC-Lavalin executives defrauded the McGill University University Health Centre of $22.5 million in a bid-rigging scheme.

Panelli told La Presse that Garda World tried to intervene and stop the practice, but then lost the contract with SNC-Lavalin. She told the newspaper that most employees who were around then are no longer with the company.

Garda World told the National Post it had no comment to offer beyond the La Presse report, and a spokesman for SNC-Lavalin would only say: “We have no comment on this matter.”

The company has argued that its corporate culture is completely different now than it was a decade ago, and that its current senior executives were not involved in the alleged corruption.

SNC-Lavalin remains Canada’s biggest engineering firm, employing thousands of people across the country and particularly in Quebec. There, the provincial premier and much of the commentariat have argued that there would be good economic reasons for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to ask an attorney general to help the company avoid criminal prosecution.

• Email: mdsmith@postmedia.com | Twitter: mariedanielles