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by Mike Caswell

John Bennett, the West Vancouver man serving a five-year jail term in the United States for a kickback scheme, has lost his appeal. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued a ruling on Friday, April 28, in which it upheld Mr. Bennett's conviction and sentence. The court ruled that there was sufficient evidence for the jury to find Mr. Bennett guilty.

The appeal ruling comes just over a year after a three-week trial for Mr. Bennett, 81. Prosecutors claimed that he was part of a scheme to pay kickbacks to the managers of a $250-million soil cleanup project in New Jersey. (All figures are in U.S. dollars.) Between 2001 and 2004 he and others arranged for cash payments, a box suite at a Buffalo Sabres game and a 10-day Mediterranean cruise for project managers. In return, Mr. Bennett's then-company, Bennett Environmental Inc., received preferred access to the bidding process. The jury convicted Mr. Bennett on March 16, 2016.

Mr. Bennett's appeal hinged on very technical arguments. He claimed that prosecutors failed to prove he had full knowledge of the kickback scheme. In particular, he said that there was no proof he had seen the principal contract documents. Those documents contained provisions in which Bennett Environmental had agreed that it would abide by rules specifically barring the payment of kickbacks. Mr. Bennett further said that there was no evidence he had any intention to defraud the government. He claimed that the price the government paid for the work was identical before and after the alleged bribes.

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