Jean Laprade ordered to pay $3,500 in legal saga of ‘hijacked planes’, Interpol red alerts and ‘inappropriate use’ of AI
A Quebec man has been ordered to pay C$5,000 (US$3,562) for submitting artificial intelligence hallucinations as part of his legal defense, a move the judge warned was “highly reprehensible” and threatened to undermine integrity in the legal system.
Justice Luc Morin of Quebec superior court levied the fine on Jean Laprade in a decision released on 1 October, capping a legal saga the judge said “contains several elements worthy of a successful movie script”, including a “hijacked plane passing through several complacent airports”, Interpol red alerts and the “inappropriate use of artificial intelligence” by Laprade.
At issue was a deal for three helicopters and an airplane that Laprade had brokered while in the west African country of Guinea. An error in the contract mistakenly awarded the businessperson an aircraft that was far more valuable than the one agreed upon.
Laprade was accused of “diverting” it to Quebec and fended off efforts to recover the plane by two aviation companies. A 2021 decision by the Paris international arbitration chamber ordered him to pay C$2.7m for the aircraft, which has been sitting at the Sherbrooke airport under a seizure order since 2019.
