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by Mike Caswell

John Bennett, the former chairman of Bennett Environmental Inc. (now Diversified Royalty Corp.), has pleaded not guilty to criminal bribery charges in the United States. He entered the plea in a brief appearance on Monday, Nov. 24, before a judge in New Jersey. The judge ordered that he remain detained for now and set a relatively prompt trial date of Jan. 27, 2015.

The charges against Mr. Bennett, 79, stem from a scheme to pay kickbacks to managers of a $250-million government soil cleanup site in New Jersey. (All figures are in U.S. dollars.) Prosecutors claim that between 2001 and 2004 Mr. Bennett and others arranged cash payments, a box suite at a Buffalo Sabres game and a 10-day Mediterranean cruise as part of the kickbacks. In return, Bennett Environmental received preferred access to the bidding process, according to prosecutors.

Mr. Bennett's appearance Monday comes over five years after prosecutors initially charged him for the scheme. The U.S. Department of Justice initially indicted him on Aug. 31, 2009, and police arrested him in West Vancouver on July 25, 2010. The U.S. then sought to have him extradited, but Mr. Bennett fought those efforts for four years. He claimed that he knew nothing about the kickback scheme and said there could be no information that would show he did. Several judges, however, found that there was enough evidence to extradite, with Mr. Bennett losing his final appeal on Oct. 30, 2014, when the Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear his case.

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