The jury has started deliberations in the fraud trial of Chuck Guité, the former civil servant who was in charge of the federal sponsorship program.
INDEPTH: Federal sponsorship scandal
Twelve jurors were sequestered Wednesday after Quebec Superior Court Justice Fraser Martin completed his instructions to them.
Guité is accused of defrauding taxpayers of more than $1.6 million by approving public works contracts that went to the Montreal ad firm Groupaction Marketing Inc. and delivered little or no results.
FROM MAY 30, 2006: Guité unaware of sponsorship fraud, he tells trial
Closing arguments were delivered Tuesday by the prosecutors and by Guité, who acted as his own lawyer during the trial.
A Crown lawyer had argued that everything about the contracts was "totally crooked" and "dishonest," while Guité said he was unaware that ad companies were defrauding the government.
FROM MARCH 2, 2006: Ad exec pleads guilty to sponsorship fraud
The judge told the eight men and four women in the jury not to be swayed by the fact that a former Groupaction executive, Jean Brault, has already pleaded guilty to fraud in the sponsorship case.
But Martin advised them to consider whether Guité made it easier for Brault to defraud the federal government.
If the jury is satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Guité aided and abetted Brault in committing fraud, then he is guilty, said the judge.
The federal sponsorship program was created after the 1995 Quebec referendum to raise Ottawa's profile in Quebec.