Numbers game

By Steve Brearton
Illustration: Seth

Business record

This spring, a Chinese prison sentence for an Australian mining exec who stole commercial secrets made global headlines. Canadian businessmen have faced similar situations

1 Length in days of the 1996 Hanoi trial at which Montreal businessman and Vietnamese immigrant Tran Trieu Quan was sentenced to life in prison for defaulting on a deal with a state firm. Quan was released in 1997.

10 Weeks an Alberta contractor working in the Balkans spent in a Yugoslav jail on suspicion of terrorism before being released. “Not to defend [our captors] too much,” said Shaun Going in 2000, “but had we been Albanian, I’m sure we would have been beaten a lot worse.”

12 Years BC businessman Michael Kapoustin was jailed in Bulgaria after first being warned to leave the country and afterward convicted of embezzlement. Kapoustin was released in 2008 after the Canadian government intervened.

75 Counts under the US Trading with the Enemy Act for which Canadian businessman James Sabzali was convicted in 2002 after selling water purification supplies to Cuba. Sabzali faced life in prison, but received probation.

2008 Year Mississauga, Ont., electronic importer Jimmy Chen was sentenced to 20 years by a Chinese court for contract fraud and trademark infringement. Chen’s family claims corrupt officials helped turn a civil dispute into a prison term.

200,000 Number of hand grenades Canadian businessman Arthur Andersen was convicted of trying to deliver to Jordan by a German court in 2003. Andersen was sentenced to more than two years for trying to ship the arms, as well as 40 rocket launchers and 3,000 “bazooka-type weapons.”