According CTV’s investigative reporting arm W5, the Canadian Federal Government has agreed to pay a Canadian businessman, Steve de Jaray, more than $10 million to compensate him for damages caused to him by the government’s erroneous prosecution in which it charged de Jaray with illegal exports of items that were not in fact export controlled.

The case began in 2008 when de Jaray’s company, Apex Micro Electronics, shipped microchips used in flat screen televisions and video games to Hong Kong. Canadian customs flagged the items as suspicious. In February 2009, Canadian Mounties (probably not on horseback) and other officials raided de Jaray’s home and office causing, de Jaray alleged, him to lose his business and ultimately his house. Experts hired by de Jaray determined that the items were not export-controlled and Canada stayed, then ultimately dropped, the prosecution.

Interestingly, and not entirely surprisingly, it appears that there are some U.S. fingerprints on the prosecution. Lawyers for de Jaray allege, citing a cable released by WikiLeaks, that just months before de Jaray’s goods were seized, U.S. officials, including a high official from the State Department’s Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs, chided the Canadians for their poor export enforcement records and insisted that certain trade concessions might be withheld if the Canadians did not start following the U.S. example and throw more people in jail for export violations.

According to CTV, de Jaray has been living in self-imposed exile from Canada for the past 6 years. My guess is that he’s probably not in the United States. I also guess that the United States would pay similar damages in an export case when, as they say, pigs fly.