Where There’s Smoke – There’s More Smoke

A fascinating account in today’s Globe & Mail about Frank Moores, Gerry and Fred Doucet, Government Consultants International, Thyssen, KarlHeinz Schreiber and the never to be Bear Head armoured vehicle plant.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080314.wpayments14/BNStory/mulroney/home

The story has an interesting account about a certain “letter of intent”, money that flowed from Germany and some interesting accounts that were then rendered:

“After the document was signed, one of the first invoices to arrive for Mr. Schreiber was from Fred Doucet, whose new company was Fred Doucet Consulting International.

It was dated Nov. 2, 1988, which was less than three months after Mr. Doucet left his government job and about a month after the document was signed. His invoice was for $90,000.
Other invoices started rolling in. The law firm of Gerry Doucet, Mr. Doucet’s brother, also billed for $90,000. Gary Ouellet’s consulting company billed for a further $90,000. Frank Moores sent his $90,000 invoice and his lobby firm, Government Consultants International, issued an invoice for $250,000.

All of the invoices used similar language to describe the work that was performed: “professional services,” “services rendered” and “consulting services.”

And sure enough, over a period of 20 days, money started winding its way from Germany back to the lobbyists. Thyssen sent $2-million to one of Mr. Schreiber’s Liechtenstein shell companies. That was transferred to another shell company, which in turn sent $1-million to one of Mr. Schreiber’s Swiss bank accounts. Then, $610,000 was transferred out of the Swiss bank account – codenamed “Frankfurt” – the same day Fred Doucet invoiced Mr. Schreiber.

After the money made its way through another Liechtenstein company, Mr. Schreiber paid all of the parties – a total of $610,000 – on Nov. 15, 1988, from one of his Calgary companies, Bitucan.”

Maybe it’s just coincidence. Maybe Fred Doucet and maybe Gerry Doucet and maybe Frank Moores each really did do work costing exactly, to the penny, $90,000.00. But we may never know. Frank, of course, is long dead and neither Fred nor Gerry seem to want to talk about it.

Wait, I know. We should just ask KarlHeinz. He paid them.

 

Since When Does a Prime Minister Lobby for a Lobbyist?

Karlheinz Schreiber may be a sideshow in the financial affairs of Brian Mulroney. It was always thought that Schreiber received the $20-million in Schmiergelder, or grease (bribe) money, paid out by Airbus Industries in the course of the Air Canada deal. Schreiber says that money went, instead, to GCI (Government Consultants International), a lobby firm owned by Mulroney croney, the late Frank Moores.

GCI is gone and Frank Moores is dead so getting to the bottom of this is going to be more difficult than it otherwise might. That said, the records of Air Canada and its board during the Mulroney years do exist and might shed a lot of light on what happened.

Why did Mulroney sack some 15-Air Canada directors and why did he include among the replacements he appointed Frank Moores? Why did Frank Moores hurriedly resign this directorship? Why did Moores repeatedly deny claims that he and GCI acted for Airbus on the sale (although correspondence has emerged plainly showing just that)? Why did Moores run off in lockstep with Mulroney to make his own “voluntary disclosure” to Revenue Canada when Schreiber’s Swiss bank records became public?

One thing, however, stands out. It’s been reported that Mulroney repeatedly pressured the Air Canada board to pay GCI a $5-million fee of some sort related to the Airbus purchase. Did Mulroney, while prime minister, really lobby for the lobbyist and, if so, why and what did he get out of it? Why would Air Canada pay a fee to GCI if it was acting as lobbyist for Airbus? Did any money pass from Air Canada to GCI or Frank Moores and, if so, how much and for what?

Norman Spector did ponder what the Commons ethics committee might have learned had it held the current enquiry back in 2002 while Moores was still alive. It’s too bad he was never asked to expand on that thought.