First, before I forget, I just wanted to wish all of our Canadian readers a HAPPY CANADA DAY!
Every business manager right now should be watching what’s going on in Canada. The Basi-Virk corruption case is about to serve as a sobering reminder of why proper data management and internal enforcement of regulatory compliance practices are so important.
This case came as a result of one of the largest business deals in Canadian history, where B.C. Rail was sold to C.N. Rail.
As is often the case with high-stakes mega-deals like this, lawsuits and charges were filed afterwards.
There were some controversies that came up as a result of the bidding process, and the police were called in to investigate. Several people were arrested and charged with crimes, ranging from fraud to breach of trust, for allegedly leaking information about the deal.
During the trial, some of the defendants had requested the disclosure of emails dating from 2001 to 2005, from 15 key witnesses in the case. The defendants claimed that these emails would prove their innocence once and for all.
Now, the BC government is allegedly claiming that they had accidentally deleted these emails. As you can imagine, this is turning out to be a very lengthy and expensive legal battle with a lot of political implications.
I’m very interested to see how things will play out as a result of this failure to comply.
Someday, your organization might be called before a judge and asked to produce archived emails and business documents. Will you be ready for full disclosure, or will you be caught in an embarrassing situation?
Use this example as a conversation starter amongst the various departments and stakeholders within your organization. Take this opportunity to craft an internal data management policy that meets the needs of all involved, and prepares you for possible future litigation.
About The Writer:
Storagepipe Solutions helps companies comply with disclosure requests in the event of litigation with their suite of email archiving and online backup solutions.
