Karlheinz Schreiber
Encyclopedia
Friedrich Karlheinz Hermann Schreiber (born March 25, 1934) is a German
and Canadian citizen, an industrialist, lobbyist, fundraiser
, arms dealer
and businessman. He has been in the news regarding his alleged role in the 1999 CDU contributions scandal
in Germany
, which damaged the political legacy of former Chancellor of Germany Helmut Kohl
and involves the present Federal Minister of Finance of Germany Wolfgang Schäuble
as well as the Airbus affair
in Canada, which was linked through allegation to former Prime Minister of Canada
Brian Mulroney
. He was extradited to Germany on August 2, 2009.
and belonged to an evangelical Lutheran community. His mother was a cook
and his father worked in upholstery
.
Schreiber became a lobbyist and deal maker. He was a fund raiser for the Christian Democratic Union
(CDU) and Christian Social Union
in West Germany before and during Helmut Kohl's chancellorship. Schreiber stated in his Canadian House of Commons
testimony on November 29, 2007 that he had been a lay judge, for nine years in Germany.
In 1991, Schreiber donated DM
1 million to the CDU, the party of the then Chancellor of Germany Helmut Kohl. These donations were crucial in the party financing scandal
that erupted in 1999 that damaged Kohl's political legacy.
for wealthy Germans in the early 1980s; among the people he served was Franz Josef Strauss, who had been premier of Bavaria
. Strauss became chairman of Airbus
Industries, a Europe
an consortium, in the 1980s, and saw Air Canada
award a large contract of C$1.8 billion (CDN), for new planes, to Airbus, winning over the bid from Boeing
(theretofore the supplier for Air Canada), shortly before his death in 1988.
The National Post reported on December 11, 2007, that in 1979 Alberta premier Peter Lougheed
had rejected any business contact with Schreiber, according to Lee Richardson, who was then an aide to Lougheed, and is now a federal Member of Parliament.
Schreiber obtained his Canadian citizenship in 1982, and also retained his (West) German citizenship, so he is a citizen of both countries. He was based in Calgary
during his early years in Canada, but moved his main liaison activities to Montreal
in the early 1980s.
Schreiber was a key figure in Canada's Airbus affair
, in which he was alleged to have arranged secret commissions to be paid to Brian Mulroney
and lobbyist Frank Moores
in exchange for then Crown corporation Air Canada
's purchase of Airbus jets. There has never been any evidence produced to substantiate this allegation. Both Schreiber and Mulroney deny such is the case.
Mulroney sued the government of Canada for libel, and in early 1997 received a $2.1 million (CDN) settlement and an apology. During an examination under oath, Mulroney claimed that he hardly knew Schreiber, and had had no business dealings with him.
Schreiber allegedly made payments of $300,000 in cash, in three instalments, to Brian Mulroney beginning one month after Mulroney had stepped down as Prime Minister, but was still a sitting member of Parliament. Schreiber had previously been a fund raiser in Mulroney's successful campaign to win the 1983 Progressive Conservative leadership convention
. Mulroney has since admitted to receiving $225,000 from Schreiber, in cash, and not reporting this in his income tax returns until eight years later. This was subsequent to Schreiber's indictment in Germany for bribery, tax evasion and fraud and extradition order from Canada.
Since 1999, the Canadian citizen and resident has fought extradition
to his native Germany, where he is wanted on allegations of fraud, bribery and failure to pay taxes to the German government on $20 million in commissions related to sales in the 1980s of Airbus jets.
In October 2004, then Canadian Justice Minister
Irwin Cotler
ordered Schreiber to surrender himself to German authorities. Schreiber, however, remained in Canada exhausting his appeals, until he was finally extradited to Germany on August 2, 2009.
accepted the extradition to his native Germany. On May 10, 2007, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that extradition was appropriate as it is "for the German courts to deal with the applicant's apprehension of prejudgement and to fashion the appropriate remedy, if one is warranted."
On March 24, 2007, he filed suit in the Ontario Superior Court against Brian Mulroney for services not rendered. He alleges that he made payments totalling $300,000 in cash over a decade ago in equal instalments of $100,000 in 1993 and 1994; that Mulroney agreed to aid in the building of a factory to make light armoured vehicles in Quebec
; and that Mulroney never held up his end of the bargain.
In October 2007, Schreiber had apparently outlasted all avenues of legal appeal regarding his extradition to Germany, and was set to be extradited to face charges. However, his lawyer, Edward Greenspan
, made a last-ditch motion using a rarely-used provision, which granted him another delay.
show The Fifth Estate
broadcast a one-hour program on the Schreiber - Mulroney situation. The program was titled Brian Mulroney: The Unauthorized Chapter. The same day the Globe and Mail published a feature article on the relationship between Karlheinz Schreiber and Brian Mulroney. The stories revealed, for the first time, that Brian Mulroney had made a voluntary disclosure to Revenue Canada years after he had received envelopes of cash from Karlheinz Schreiber. The Globe and Mail and CBC reporters, Greg McArthur and Harvey Cashore, had teamed up to conduct research together [each organization maintained editorial control over their stories].
Then, in the week of November 5, 2007, Schreiber, assisted by his lawyer Richard Anka, filed an affidavit in Ontario Superior Court, related to his suit against Brian Mulroney filed in March; it contained several explosive allegations against Mulroney. Among Schreiber's claims was that he had met with Mulroney to discuss business a few days before the then-prime minister stepped down in June 1993, contradicting Mulroney's claim made during his libel suit. Schreiber also claimed that he had written a letter to current Prime Minister Stephen Harper on his extradition situation, and that he had asked Mulroney to intercede with Harper on this matter when Mulroney met with Harper in 2006.
Coverage by The Globe and Mail
newspaper on November 9 led Prime Minister Stephen Harper
to announce later that day that he would name a special independent adviser in the days ahead, to investigate Schreiber's statements; Mulroney promised his full cooperation. Harper also announced that federal Conservative caucus members were to have nothing to do with Mulroney while the investigative process unfolded. Harper denied any personal dealings with Schreiber. The Globe and Mail, which had published a large front-page picture on November 9, 2007, showing Mulroney meeting with Schreiber in the prime minister's office, accompanied by two of Mulroney's senior staff members, continued its extensive coverage on November 10, and other Canadian media outlets also took up the story.
On November 13, 2007, after Mulroney requested a public inquiry, Prime Minister Harper announced that a full public inquiry would take place on these matters.
The day after, on November 14, 2007, a report on cbc.ca quoted expert opinion saying that Schreiber's potential extradition to Germany could be delayed further by the timing of the public inquiry. On the same day, Prime Minister Harper announced that David Lloyd Johnston
, president of the University of Waterloo
, would set the terms of the public inquiry, and would report to the Prime Minister by January 11, 2008. Also on November 14, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
announced that they would begin a review of these matters; the RCMP had originally investigated the situation starting in the late 1980s.
On November 15, 2007, Schreiber lost his extradition
appeal. Crown lawyers said that Justice Minister
Rob Nicholson
would wait at least 15 days before extraditing Schreiber to Germany. However, Schreiber has vowed that he would not cooperate with the public inquiry if he was extradited. Minister of Public Safety Stockwell Day
stated on November 16 that Schreiber would have to cooperate with the inquiry, regardless of circumstances. Bavaria
n prosecutors stated they would abide by the Canadian government's decisions on Schreiber's extradition.
On November 21, 2007, The Globe and Mail reported that Mulroney spokesman Luc Lavoie stated Mulroney was broke in late August, 1993, when he accepted the first $100,000 cash payment from Schreiber, while still a member of the Canadian House of Commons
.
On November 21, 2007, legal pundits interviewed on various Canadian network television news channels speculated that Schreiber would most likely be extradited during a clandestine "middle-of-the-night" series of flights from Toronto Island Airport, through the United States
, and on to Germany. This would most likely happen within hours of a Supreme Court of Canada announcement that it will not hear Schreiber's final appeal.
Ethics Committee
had struck a deal to hear testimony from Schreiber as soon as possible, possibly in advance of any possible extradition. As would be the case on any Parliamentary Committee when a minority government is in power, Opposition party members outnumbered the governing party members on this committee; perhaps more important, this committee had elected an opposition member, Paul Szabo, as its chairperson.
On November 23, 2007, The Globe and Mail reported that the Commons Ethics Committee wanted to summon Schreiber to testify before it on November 27 and 29. For this to occur, Schreiber would have to be released from jail in Toronto and travel to Ottawa
, Canada's capital. The government refused to permit the release. Schreiber stated that if he testified, he wanted bail, to wear a business suit and not his prison jumpsuit, and would like time to study his files which were stored at his house in Ottawa. Schreiber had also stated that the German government may have obtained information from his Swiss bank accounts through Swiss authorities, without following proper procedures, and planned to use this as grounds for appealing his extradition. The plan was that Brian Mulroney would then appear before the Ethics Committee in the week following Schreiber's testimony.
On November 26, 2007, Canadian Press
reported that Democracy Watch
head Duff Conacher claimed that Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Justice Minister Rob Nicholson are in a conflict of interest
position with respect to the Mulroney-Schreiber matters, and had asked the Federal Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson (Canadian civil servant)
to investigate.
That day, November 26, Schreiber received a hand-delivered summons from the chair of the Ethics Committee, Paul Szabo
, a Liberal, to appear before the Commons Ethics Committee. The problem was that Schreiber was being held in a provincial jail in Toronto awaiting extradition which could take place as soon as December 1. The fact he had a summons to appear in Ottawa was not going to be sufficient to get him released from the jail. In the House of Commons, Szabo reminded Minister of Justice Rob Nicholson
that although Schreiber was in a provincial jail, he was held there under a federal warrant. Szabo demanded that Minister Nicholson bring him before the Committee in the Commons. Nicholson claimed that he had no jurisdiction in the matter. Later, on November 28, House of Commons legal counsel Rob Walsh expressed his disagreement with Nicholson's opinion, stating "the Minister could facilitate this process in my view." (The National Post, November 28, 2007).
This situation caused New Democratic Party
MP Pat Martin
, a member of the Commons Ethics Committee, to move later that afternoon that the Committee ask the Speaker of the House of Commons to issue a "Speaker's Warrant", an instrument which had not been used in Canada since 1913, so that Schreiber could be released from the Toronto jail where he was being held. The Committee passed Martin's motion, voting strictly along party lines, with the Conservatives opposed and the other parties in favour.
The next day, November 27, Commons Speaker Peter Milliken
stated that he would immediately issue a Speaker's Warrant to have Schreiber brought to Ottawa so he could testify before the Commons Ethics Committee as soon as possible. Later that day, the Commons voice-voted unanimously to approve the Speaker's Warrant, thus permitting Schreiber to appear before the Commons Ethics Committee on November 29.
On November 27, CBC Television broadcast a 1991 picture of Schreiber and his wife together with Mulroney and his wife, at an event in Germany; this was during Mulroney's second term as Canadian prime minister. In an interview with CBC, Schreiber, who has not been charged with or convicted of any crime in Canada, said that the matter is "the biggest political justice scandal in Canadian history." On November 30, Ontario Superior Court was set to hear an appeal from Schreiber on further delaying his extradition to Germany, which could have taken place as soon as the following day, December 1.
The formal title for the Ethics Committee's proceedings was: "Study of the Mulroney Airbus Settlement".
In his first-day testimony before the Ethics Committee on November 29, Schreiber, placed under oath, answered a few questions from MPs, but deferred the answers to most others, replying that he needed more time to study his files.
On November 29, The Globe and Mail published the text of the 2006 Schreiber letter to Mulroney requesting help with Schreiber's extradition problems; Schreiber claimed that he had been assisted in the composition of this letter by Elmer MacKay
, a former Cabinet minister in the Mulroney government. Elmer MacKay had stepped down from his Nova Scotia Commons seat in Central Nova in 1983, so that Mulroney, who had just become Progressive Conservative leader without being a member of the House of Commons, would have a riding to run in, in order to gain formal admission to Parliament. Mulroney did win the by-election in August 1983. Elmer MacKay was then re-elected to Parliament in the 1984 Mulroney majority victory, and served in Cabinet as Solicitor General, Minister of National Revenue, and Minister of Public Works, as well as heading the Atlantic Canada Opportunity Agency. Elmer MacKay had also later worked for Schreiber's companies, after leaving Parliament in 1993. Schreiber had hired Elmer MacKay's son Peter MacKay
to work for him at Thyssen AG in Germany in 1992; the plan was to train Peter MacKay as the head of the prospective Thyssen plant to manufacture light armoured vehicles, which had gained initial government approval, but was never built. Peter MacKay is now the Canadian Minister of Defence. In his testimony before the Commons Ethics Committee on November 29, Schreiber further elaborated on this situation.
On November 30, Schreiber's lawyer Edward Greenspan was successful in an appeal to the Ontario Superior Court for a stay in Schreiber's extradition to Germany; this was then delayed indefinitely, to allow Schreiber to appear before the Commons Ethics Committee. Greenspan planned a further appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.
Schreiber remained under confinement at the Ottawa Detention Centre, with limited access to his files stored in his Ottawa home; his lawyer Edward Greenspan claimed this situation made it difficult for Schreiber to prepare properly for his appearances before the Ethics Committee, explaining his partial answers to questions from MPs. Greenspan stated he aimed to achieve bail for Schreiber as soon as possible.
On December 4, 2007, represented by lawyer Richard Auger, Schreiber was granted bail when he posted $1.3 million. He was allowed to live in his Ottawa home while testifying before the Commons Ethics Committee. In his second day of testimony before the Ethics Committee, on December 4, Schreiber stated that the $300,000 which he paid Mulroney from 1993-1994 did not involve Airbus, nor did it involve any business which may have occurred between the two men while Mulroney was prime minister. Schreiber provided several files of his correspondence with Mulroney and Harper, for the Committee members to study, so that they could better prepare future questions. Schreiber stated that he had donated $30,000 in cash to the unsuccessful 1993 PC leadership campaign of Jean Charest
through his brother Robert Charest; this was legal at that time. Charest, now the Liberal premier of the province of Quebec
, stated that the amount had been $10,000; in the 1999 book The Last Amigo, by Stevie Cameron
and Harvey Cashore, the donation amount quoted was $13,000. Schreiber also received an apology from the Committee for the degrading treatment he had suffered, when his pants fell down while he was being escorted from the Commons, which had been filmed and shown on television around the world (his belt had been taken from him, as standard procedure with escorted prisoners).
On December 6, Schreiber made his third appearance before the Ethics Committee. He stated that the $300,000, paid in three cash payments to Mulroney in 1993 and 1994, came from a Swiss Bank account, where he had deposited the 'success fees' which Schreiber had earned in commissions for his work as a lobbyist, from successful contracts with Airbus, MBB, and Thyssen in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Airbus and MBB had concluded very large contracts, for airplanes and helicopters respectively, with the Canadian government while Mulroney was prime minister from 1984-1993, while Thyssen's project, a new factory to manufacture light armoured vehicles, the Bear Head project, received initial government approval, but was never built. Schreiber also stated that Mulroney may have also received Airbus money which Schreiber paid to the lobbying firm Government Consultants International, through GCI personnel. Three of the four GCI principal partners at that time -- Frank Moores
, Gary Ouellet
, and Gerald Doucet
-- had close ties to the PC Party and to Mulroney himself. GCI went out of business in 1994, a year after Mulroney stepped down as prime minister. A former employee of the GCI firm is scheduled to testify before the Ethics Committee regarding these matters in the future. Schreiber also claimed that Fred Doucet
(younger brother of Gerald Doucet), who had served as Chief of Staff while Mulroney was Opposition Leader from 1983-1984, and who continued to serve on Mulroney's staff in the Prime Minister's Office after that had in the early 1990s asked Schreiber to send money from the sale of Airbus planes to Mulroney's lawyer in Geneva
. Fred Doucet has denied that statement. Fred Doucet, who also testified supporting Mulroney in the Mulroney libel case in the mid-1990s, is on the list of future witnesses for the Ethics Committee. Mulroney has refused to comment before his scheduled appearance before the Ethics Committee, set for December 13, 2007.
Subsequent to the Ethics Committee proceedings, a further public enquiry by the Oliphant Commission began in April 2009. The Commission's hearings phase ended in the last week of July and the following weekend, Mr. Schreiber was ordered to appear at the Toronto Detention Centre pending his return to Germany, after a last-ditch effort to find another means of avoiding extradition. Less than three hours later, he was on an aircraft accompanied by Royal Canadian Mounted Police
(RCMP) officers and declared "surrendered to Germany."
ouster of Joe Clark
as Progressive Conservative leader; Clark had called for a leadership convention, which led five months later to Brian Mulroney winning. Schreiber said he contributed $25,000 himself, and that the late Franz Josef Strauss, Airbus chairman and former Bavarian premier, added a similar amount. Schreiber also raised the possibility that Strauss's political party, the Christian Social Union
, may have also given substantial funds. It was already known from 1983 that Walter Wolf, the Austria
n-Canadian businessman and entrepreneur, had by his own admission also contributed $25,000 for this project. Mulroney had quickly distanced himself from Wolf following that admission. The money was used to transport and house many pro-Mulroney delegates, who voted against Clark, narrowly denying him sufficient support to continue as leader, despite a large lead over the governing Liberals, led by Pierre Trudeau
, in the polls.
A series of successful burglaries in Montreal
in 1984, which targeted files on financial contributions to the Mulroney camp, held in the homes and offices of Walter Wolf, W. David Angus
, Roger Nantel, Rodrigue Pageau, and others, eliminated most if not all records of the German cash, along with material on others' contributions. Despite police investigation, none of the burglaries were ever solved.
Schreiber also stated that he transferred at least $5 million from his deals to the lobbying firm Government Consultants International, which had three senior Tories, Frank Moores
, Gerald Doucet
, and Gary Ouellet
, as part of its management team; all three men had close ties to Mulroney. This money came from firms Airbus, MBB, and Thyssen, which Schreiber was representing for Canadian projects.
The Globe and Mail reported on December 12 that money from Strauss had also financed Moores to the tune of several hundred thousand dollars in the early 1980s, through purchase of some of his isolated rural land holdings in Newfoundland
.
On December 11, following his testimony before the Ethics Committee, Schreiber was interviewed by Peter Mansbridge
, anchor of The National newscast on CBC Television
. Schreiber told Mansbridge that Franz Josef Strauss had a policy of helping to elect conservative-leaning governments around the world, by financing their campaigns, and that the Canadian case was just one example. Schreiber also told Mansbridge that Mulroney knew that the $300,000 in cash that he received from Schreiber from 1993-1994 was coming from the Thyssen account, and that the arrangement called for Mulroney to lobby on behalf of Thyssen to develop the Bear Head project, once he stepped down from office as prime minister in June, 1993. Mulroney did not tell Schreiber at that time that the Bear Head project, which had in 1988 received initial Cabinet approval from three ministers, as well as the Nova Scotia
government, was cancelled in 1990. Schreiber said he had met with Mulroney and cabinet minister Elmer MacKay
at the prime minister's residence, 24 Sussex Drive
, in March 1993, to discuss the Bear Head project. This contradicted Mulroney's sworn statement made at his 1996 libel trial that he had had no business with Schreiber. Schreiber said that no receipt or invoice was issued at the time for the C$300,000 deal with Mulroney.
Special adviser David Lloyd Johnston
delivered his report on the Mulroney - Schreiber matters to Prime Minister Harper, as scheduled on January 11, 2008. Johnston found 16 significant questions requiring further examination. Harper stated that a limited public inquiry process would begin once the Commons Ethics Committee finished its own work. The Ethics Committee plans to call more witnesses, plans an expanded schedule of hearings, and wishes to further examine Schreiber and Mulroney, when it resumes sitting on January 28, 2008.
This decision has been overthrown by a German court on September 6, 2011.
and Harvey Cashore, The Last Amigo: Karlheinz Schreiber and the Anatomy of a Scandal. He is prominent in Cameron's On the Take: Crime, Corruption and Greed in the Mulroney Years (1994). Schreiber's Canadian dealings are also featured in two books by William Kaplan
. In 1998, Kaplan wrote Presumed Guilty: Brian Mulroney, the Airbus Affair, and the Government of Canada. In 2004, Kaplan followed up on the latest developments in A Secret Trial: Brian Mulroney, Stevie Cameron, and the Public Trust.
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
and Canadian citizen, an industrialist, lobbyist, fundraiser
Fundraiser
A fundraiser is an event or campaign whose primary purpose is to raise money for a cause. See also: fundraising. A fundraiser can also be an individual or company whose primary job is to raise money for a specific charity or non-profit organization...
, arms dealer
Arms industry
The arms industry is a global industry and business which manufactures and sells weapons and military technology and equipment. It comprises government and commercial industry involved in research, development, production, and service of military material, equipment and facilities...
and businessman. He has been in the news regarding his alleged role in the 1999 CDU contributions scandal
1999 CDU contributions scandal
In late 1999, it was discovered that the German Christian Democratic Union political party had accepted illegal donations while under the control of Chancellor Helmut Kohl in the 1990s...
in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, which damaged the political legacy of former Chancellor of Germany Helmut Kohl
Helmut Kohl
Helmut Josef Michael Kohl is a German conservative politician and statesman. He was Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 and the chairman of the Christian Democratic Union from 1973 to 1998...
and involves the present Federal Minister of Finance of Germany Wolfgang Schäuble
Wolfgang Schäuble
Wolfgang Schäuble is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union , currently serving as the Federal Minister of Finance in the Second Cabinet Merkel....
as well as the Airbus affair
Airbus affair
The Airbus affair refers to allegations of secret commissions paid to members of the Government of Canada during the term of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, in exchange for then-crown corporation Air Canada's purchase of a large number of Airbus jets...
in Canada, which was linked through allegation to former Prime Minister of Canada
Prime Minister of Canada
The Prime Minister of Canada is the primary minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government for Canada, charged with advising the Canadian monarch or viceroy on the exercise of the executive powers vested in them by the constitution...
Brian Mulroney
Brian Mulroney
Martin Brian Mulroney, was the 18th Prime Minister of Canada from September 17, 1984, to June 25, 1993 and was leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1983 to 1993. His tenure as Prime Minister was marked by the introduction of major economic reforms, such as the Canada-U.S...
. He was extradited to Germany on August 2, 2009.
Early life and career
Schreiber was born in Petersdorf, Thüringen. His family was working classWorking class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
and belonged to an evangelical Lutheran community. His mother was a cook
Cook (profession)
A cook is a person who prepares food for consumption. In Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Canada this profession requires government approval ....
and his father worked in upholstery
Upholstery
Upholstery is the work of providing furniture, especially seats, with padding, springs, webbing, and fabric or leather covers. The word upholstery comes from the Middle English word upholder, which referred to a tradesman who held up his goods. The term is equally applicable to domestic,...
.
Schreiber became a lobbyist and deal maker. He was a fund raiser for the Christian Democratic Union
Christian Democratic Union (Germany)
The Christian Democratic Union of Germany is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It is regarded as on the centre-right of the German political spectrum...
(CDU) and Christian Social Union
Christian Social Union of Bavaria
The Christian Social Union in Bavaria is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It operates only in the state of Bavaria, while its sister party, the Christian Democratic Union , operates in the other 15 states of Germany...
in West Germany before and during Helmut Kohl's chancellorship. Schreiber stated in his Canadian House of Commons
Canadian House of Commons
The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...
testimony on November 29, 2007 that he had been a lay judge, for nine years in Germany.
In 1991, Schreiber donated DM
German mark
The Deutsche Mark |mark]], abbreviated "DM") was the official currency of West Germany and Germany until the adoption of the euro in 2002. It is commonly called the "Deutschmark" in English but not in German. Germans often say "Mark" or "D-Mark"...
1 million to the CDU, the party of the then Chancellor of Germany Helmut Kohl. These donations were crucial in the party financing scandal
1999 CDU contributions scandal
In late 1999, it was discovered that the German Christian Democratic Union political party had accepted illegal donations while under the control of Chancellor Helmut Kohl in the 1990s...
that erupted in 1999 that damaged Kohl's political legacy.
Role in Canada
Schreiber set up trust accounts in AlbertaAlberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
for wealthy Germans in the early 1980s; among the people he served was Franz Josef Strauss, who had been premier of Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
. Strauss became chairman of Airbus
Airbus
Airbus SAS is an aircraft manufacturing subsidiary of EADS, a European aerospace company. Based in Blagnac, France, surburb of Toulouse, and with significant activity across Europe, the company produces around half of the world's jet airliners....
Industries, a Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an consortium, in the 1980s, and saw Air Canada
Air Canada
Air Canada is the flag carrier and largest airline of Canada. The airline, founded in 1936, provides scheduled and charter air transport for passengers and cargo to 178 destinations worldwide. It is the world's tenth largest passenger airline by number of destinations, and the airline is a...
award a large contract of C$1.8 billion (CDN), for new planes, to Airbus, winning over the bid from Boeing
Boeing
The Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...
(theretofore the supplier for Air Canada), shortly before his death in 1988.
The National Post reported on December 11, 2007, that in 1979 Alberta premier Peter Lougheed
Peter Lougheed
Edgar Peter Lougheed, PC, CC, AOE, QC, is a Canadian lawyer, and a former politician and Canadian Football League player. He served as the tenth Premier of Alberta from 1971 to 1985....
had rejected any business contact with Schreiber, according to Lee Richardson, who was then an aide to Lougheed, and is now a federal Member of Parliament.
Schreiber obtained his Canadian citizenship in 1982, and also retained his (West) German citizenship, so he is a citizen of both countries. He was based in Calgary
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
during his early years in Canada, but moved his main liaison activities to Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
in the early 1980s.
Schreiber was a key figure in Canada's Airbus affair
Airbus affair
The Airbus affair refers to allegations of secret commissions paid to members of the Government of Canada during the term of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, in exchange for then-crown corporation Air Canada's purchase of a large number of Airbus jets...
, in which he was alleged to have arranged secret commissions to be paid to Brian Mulroney
Brian Mulroney
Martin Brian Mulroney, was the 18th Prime Minister of Canada from September 17, 1984, to June 25, 1993 and was leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1983 to 1993. His tenure as Prime Minister was marked by the introduction of major economic reforms, such as the Canada-U.S...
and lobbyist Frank Moores
Frank Moores
Frank Duff Moores served as the 2nd Premier of Newfoundland. He served as leader of the Progressive Conservatives from 1972 until his retirement in 1979.-Early life:...
in exchange for then Crown corporation Air Canada
Air Canada
Air Canada is the flag carrier and largest airline of Canada. The airline, founded in 1936, provides scheduled and charter air transport for passengers and cargo to 178 destinations worldwide. It is the world's tenth largest passenger airline by number of destinations, and the airline is a...
's purchase of Airbus jets. There has never been any evidence produced to substantiate this allegation. Both Schreiber and Mulroney deny such is the case.
Mulroney sued the government of Canada for libel, and in early 1997 received a $2.1 million (CDN) settlement and an apology. During an examination under oath, Mulroney claimed that he hardly knew Schreiber, and had had no business dealings with him.
Schreiber allegedly made payments of $300,000 in cash, in three instalments, to Brian Mulroney beginning one month after Mulroney had stepped down as Prime Minister, but was still a sitting member of Parliament. Schreiber had previously been a fund raiser in Mulroney's successful campaign to win the 1983 Progressive Conservative leadership convention
Progressive Conservative leadership convention, 1983
The 1983 Progressive Conservative leadership election was held on June 11, 1983 in Ottawa, Ontario to elect a leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada...
. Mulroney has since admitted to receiving $225,000 from Schreiber, in cash, and not reporting this in his income tax returns until eight years later. This was subsequent to Schreiber's indictment in Germany for bribery, tax evasion and fraud and extradition order from Canada.
Since 1999, the Canadian citizen and resident has fought extradition
Extradition
Extradition is the official process whereby one nation or state surrenders a suspected or convicted criminal to another nation or state. Between nation states, extradition is regulated by treaties...
to his native Germany, where he is wanted on allegations of fraud, bribery and failure to pay taxes to the German government on $20 million in commissions related to sales in the 1980s of Airbus jets.
In October 2004, then Canadian Justice Minister
Minister of Justice (Canada)
The Minister of Justice is the Minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet who is responsible for the Department of Justice and is also Attorney General of Canada .This cabinet position is usually reserved for someone with formal legal training...
Irwin Cotler
Irwin Cotler
Irwin Cotler, PC, OC, MP was Canada's Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada from 2003 until the Liberal government of Paul Martin lost power following the 2006 federal election. He was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons for the constituency of Mount Royal in a by-election...
ordered Schreiber to surrender himself to German authorities. Schreiber, however, remained in Canada exhausting his appeals, until he was finally extradited to Germany on August 2, 2009.
Supreme Court orders extradition
On February 1, 2007, the Supreme Court of CanadaSupreme Court of Canada
The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court of Canada and is the final court of appeals in the Canadian justice system. The court grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants each year to appeal decisions rendered by provincial, territorial and federal appellate courts, and its decisions...
accepted the extradition to his native Germany. On May 10, 2007, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that extradition was appropriate as it is "for the German courts to deal with the applicant's apprehension of prejudgement and to fashion the appropriate remedy, if one is warranted."
On March 24, 2007, he filed suit in the Ontario Superior Court against Brian Mulroney for services not rendered. He alleges that he made payments totalling $300,000 in cash over a decade ago in equal instalments of $100,000 in 1993 and 1994; that Mulroney agreed to aid in the building of a factory to make light armoured vehicles in Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
; and that Mulroney never held up his end of the bargain.
In October 2007, Schreiber had apparently outlasted all avenues of legal appeal regarding his extradition to Germany, and was set to be extradited to face charges. However, his lawyer, Edward Greenspan
Edward Greenspan
Edward Leonard Greenspan, QC is a Canadian lawyer and prolific author of legal volumes. He is one of the most famous defence lawyers in Canada, owing to several high-profile clients and to his national exposure on the popular Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio series, The Scales of Justice .A...
, made a last-ditch motion using a rarely-used provision, which granted him another delay.
Public inquiry
On October 31, 2007, the CBC TelevisionCBC Television
CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...
show The Fifth Estate
The fifth estate
the fifth estate is a Canadian television newsmagazine, which airs on the English language CBC Television network. The name is a play on the fact that the media are sometimes referred to as the Fourth Estate, and was chosen to highlight the program's determination to go beyond everyday news into...
broadcast a one-hour program on the Schreiber - Mulroney situation. The program was titled Brian Mulroney: The Unauthorized Chapter. The same day the Globe and Mail published a feature article on the relationship between Karlheinz Schreiber and Brian Mulroney. The stories revealed, for the first time, that Brian Mulroney had made a voluntary disclosure to Revenue Canada years after he had received envelopes of cash from Karlheinz Schreiber. The Globe and Mail and CBC reporters, Greg McArthur and Harvey Cashore, had teamed up to conduct research together [each organization maintained editorial control over their stories].
Then, in the week of November 5, 2007, Schreiber, assisted by his lawyer Richard Anka, filed an affidavit in Ontario Superior Court, related to his suit against Brian Mulroney filed in March; it contained several explosive allegations against Mulroney. Among Schreiber's claims was that he had met with Mulroney to discuss business a few days before the then-prime minister stepped down in June 1993, contradicting Mulroney's claim made during his libel suit. Schreiber also claimed that he had written a letter to current Prime Minister Stephen Harper on his extradition situation, and that he had asked Mulroney to intercede with Harper on this matter when Mulroney met with Harper in 2006.
Coverage by The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
newspaper on November 9 led Prime Minister Stephen Harper
Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became prime minister when his party formed a minority government after the 2006 federal election...
to announce later that day that he would name a special independent adviser in the days ahead, to investigate Schreiber's statements; Mulroney promised his full cooperation. Harper also announced that federal Conservative caucus members were to have nothing to do with Mulroney while the investigative process unfolded. Harper denied any personal dealings with Schreiber. The Globe and Mail, which had published a large front-page picture on November 9, 2007, showing Mulroney meeting with Schreiber in the prime minister's office, accompanied by two of Mulroney's senior staff members, continued its extensive coverage on November 10, and other Canadian media outlets also took up the story.
On November 13, 2007, after Mulroney requested a public inquiry, Prime Minister Harper announced that a full public inquiry would take place on these matters.
The day after, on November 14, 2007, a report on cbc.ca quoted expert opinion saying that Schreiber's potential extradition to Germany could be delayed further by the timing of the public inquiry. On the same day, Prime Minister Harper announced that David Lloyd Johnston
David Lloyd Johnston
David Lloyd Johnston is a Canadian academic, author and statesman who is the current Governor General of Canada, the 28th since Canadian Confederation....
, president of the University of Waterloo
University of Waterloo
The University of Waterloo is a comprehensive public university in the city of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The school was founded in 1957 by Drs. Gerry Hagey and Ira G. Needles, and has since grown to an institution of more than 30,000 students, faculty, and staff...
, would set the terms of the public inquiry, and would report to the Prime Minister by January 11, 2008. Also on November 14, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police , literally ‘Royal Gendarmerie of Canada’; colloquially known as The Mounties, and internally as ‘The Force’) is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal,...
announced that they would begin a review of these matters; the RCMP had originally investigated the situation starting in the late 1980s.
On November 15, 2007, Schreiber lost his extradition
Extradition
Extradition is the official process whereby one nation or state surrenders a suspected or convicted criminal to another nation or state. Between nation states, extradition is regulated by treaties...
appeal. Crown lawyers said that Justice Minister
Minister of Justice (Canada)
The Minister of Justice is the Minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet who is responsible for the Department of Justice and is also Attorney General of Canada .This cabinet position is usually reserved for someone with formal legal training...
Rob Nicholson
Rob Nicholson
Robert Douglas "Rob" Nicholson, PC, QC, MP , is the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada. He is a current member of the Canadian House of Commons, representing the riding of Niagara Falls for the Conservative Party and the current Minister of Justice after serving for one year as...
would wait at least 15 days before extraditing Schreiber to Germany. However, Schreiber has vowed that he would not cooperate with the public inquiry if he was extradited. Minister of Public Safety Stockwell Day
Stockwell Day
Stockwell Burt Day, Jr., PC, MP is a former Canadian politician, and a member of the Conservative Party of Canada. He is a former cabinet minister in Alberta, and a former leader of the Canadian Alliance. Day was MP for the riding of Okanagan—Coquihalla in British Columbia and the president of...
stated on November 16 that Schreiber would have to cooperate with the inquiry, regardless of circumstances. Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
n prosecutors stated they would abide by the Canadian government's decisions on Schreiber's extradition.
On November 21, 2007, The Globe and Mail reported that Mulroney spokesman Luc Lavoie stated Mulroney was broke in late August, 1993, when he accepted the first $100,000 cash payment from Schreiber, while still a member of the Canadian House of Commons
Canadian House of Commons
The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...
.
On November 21, 2007, legal pundits interviewed on various Canadian network television news channels speculated that Schreiber would most likely be extradited during a clandestine "middle-of-the-night" series of flights from Toronto Island Airport, through the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and on to Germany. This would most likely happen within hours of a Supreme Court of Canada announcement that it will not hear Schreiber's final appeal.
Commons Ethics Committee summons Schreiber
On November 21, 2007, the website ctv.ca reported that the Canadian House of CommonsCanadian House of Commons
The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...
Ethics Committee
Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics
The Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics is a permanent standing committee of the Canadian House of Commons that reports to the Parliament of Canada on issues related to ethics and the Access to Information Act. The committee may be referred to...
had struck a deal to hear testimony from Schreiber as soon as possible, possibly in advance of any possible extradition. As would be the case on any Parliamentary Committee when a minority government is in power, Opposition party members outnumbered the governing party members on this committee; perhaps more important, this committee had elected an opposition member, Paul Szabo, as its chairperson.
On November 23, 2007, The Globe and Mail reported that the Commons Ethics Committee wanted to summon Schreiber to testify before it on November 27 and 29. For this to occur, Schreiber would have to be released from jail in Toronto and travel to Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
, Canada's capital. The government refused to permit the release. Schreiber stated that if he testified, he wanted bail, to wear a business suit and not his prison jumpsuit, and would like time to study his files which were stored at his house in Ottawa. Schreiber had also stated that the German government may have obtained information from his Swiss bank accounts through Swiss authorities, without following proper procedures, and planned to use this as grounds for appealing his extradition. The plan was that Brian Mulroney would then appear before the Ethics Committee in the week following Schreiber's testimony.
On November 26, 2007, Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Canadian Press Enterprises Inc. is the entity which "will take over the operations of the Canadian Press" according to a November 26, 2010 article in the Toronto Star...
reported that Democracy Watch
Democracy Watch (Canada)
Democracy Watch, established in 1993, is a Canadian organization that advocates on democratic reform, government accountability and corporate responsibility issues...
head Duff Conacher claimed that Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Justice Minister Rob Nicholson are in a conflict of interest
Conflict of interest
A conflict of interest occurs when an individual or organization is involved in multiple interests, one of which could possibly corrupt the motivation for an act in the other....
position with respect to the Mulroney-Schreiber matters, and had asked the Federal Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson (Canadian civil servant)
Mary Dawson (Canadian civil servant)
Mary Elizabeth Dawson is the current Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner of Canada. She was appointed by the minority Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper on July 9, 2007 as the Conflict of Interest Act came into force....
to investigate.
That day, November 26, Schreiber received a hand-delivered summons from the chair of the Ethics Committee, Paul Szabo
Paul Szabo
Paul John Mark Szabo is a Canadian politician. He is a former member of the Canadian House of Commons, representing the riding of Mississauga South for the Liberal Party.-Early life and education:...
, a Liberal, to appear before the Commons Ethics Committee. The problem was that Schreiber was being held in a provincial jail in Toronto awaiting extradition which could take place as soon as December 1. The fact he had a summons to appear in Ottawa was not going to be sufficient to get him released from the jail. In the House of Commons, Szabo reminded Minister of Justice Rob Nicholson
Rob Nicholson
Robert Douglas "Rob" Nicholson, PC, QC, MP , is the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada. He is a current member of the Canadian House of Commons, representing the riding of Niagara Falls for the Conservative Party and the current Minister of Justice after serving for one year as...
that although Schreiber was in a provincial jail, he was held there under a federal warrant. Szabo demanded that Minister Nicholson bring him before the Committee in the Commons. Nicholson claimed that he had no jurisdiction in the matter. Later, on November 28, House of Commons legal counsel Rob Walsh expressed his disagreement with Nicholson's opinion, stating "the Minister could facilitate this process in my view." (The National Post, November 28, 2007).
This situation caused New Democratic Party
New Democratic Party
The New Democratic Party , commonly referred to as the NDP, is a federal social-democratic political party in Canada. The interim leader of the NDP is Nycole Turmel who was appointed to the position due to the illness of Jack Layton, who died on August 22, 2011. The provincial wings of the NDP in...
MP Pat Martin
Pat Martin
Patrick "Pat" Martin is a Canadian politician. He has been a member of the Canadian House of Commons since 1997, representing the riding of Winnipeg Centre for the New Democratic Party.-Career:...
, a member of the Commons Ethics Committee, to move later that afternoon that the Committee ask the Speaker of the House of Commons to issue a "Speaker's Warrant", an instrument which had not been used in Canada since 1913, so that Schreiber could be released from the Toronto jail where he was being held. The Committee passed Martin's motion, voting strictly along party lines, with the Conservatives opposed and the other parties in favour.
The next day, November 27, Commons Speaker Peter Milliken
Peter Milliken
Peter Andrew Stewart Milliken, UE is a Canadian lawyer and politician. He was a member of the Canadian House of Commons from 1988 until his retirement in 2011 and served as Speaker of the House for 10 years beginning in 2001. Milliken represented the Ontario riding of Kingston and the Islands as a...
stated that he would immediately issue a Speaker's Warrant to have Schreiber brought to Ottawa so he could testify before the Commons Ethics Committee as soon as possible. Later that day, the Commons voice-voted unanimously to approve the Speaker's Warrant, thus permitting Schreiber to appear before the Commons Ethics Committee on November 29.
On November 27, CBC Television broadcast a 1991 picture of Schreiber and his wife together with Mulroney and his wife, at an event in Germany; this was during Mulroney's second term as Canadian prime minister. In an interview with CBC, Schreiber, who has not been charged with or convicted of any crime in Canada, said that the matter is "the biggest political justice scandal in Canadian history." On November 30, Ontario Superior Court was set to hear an appeal from Schreiber on further delaying his extradition to Germany, which could have taken place as soon as the following day, December 1.
Appears before Ethics Committee, extradition delayed
On November 28, 2007, Schreiber was transported from Toronto to Ottawa, where he spent the night in the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre. The next morning, November 29, he arrived at the House of Commons, where he was given a room for personal use, and to review his documents (which he was able to retrieve from his Ottawa home), prior to his testimony before the Ethics Committee. Schreiber was then scheduled to testify on November 29, December 4, and December 6; his extradition to Germany has been postponed. Brian Mulroney will testify later before the Committee.The formal title for the Ethics Committee's proceedings was: "Study of the Mulroney Airbus Settlement".
In his first-day testimony before the Ethics Committee on November 29, Schreiber, placed under oath, answered a few questions from MPs, but deferred the answers to most others, replying that he needed more time to study his files.
On November 29, The Globe and Mail published the text of the 2006 Schreiber letter to Mulroney requesting help with Schreiber's extradition problems; Schreiber claimed that he had been assisted in the composition of this letter by Elmer MacKay
Elmer MacKay
Elmer MacIntosh MacKay, PC, QC is a retired Canadian politician.-Life and career:MacKay was born in Hopewell, Nova Scotia. He was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons as the Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament for Central Nova through a 1971 by-election...
, a former Cabinet minister in the Mulroney government. Elmer MacKay had stepped down from his Nova Scotia Commons seat in Central Nova in 1983, so that Mulroney, who had just become Progressive Conservative leader without being a member of the House of Commons, would have a riding to run in, in order to gain formal admission to Parliament. Mulroney did win the by-election in August 1983. Elmer MacKay was then re-elected to Parliament in the 1984 Mulroney majority victory, and served in Cabinet as Solicitor General, Minister of National Revenue, and Minister of Public Works, as well as heading the Atlantic Canada Opportunity Agency. Elmer MacKay had also later worked for Schreiber's companies, after leaving Parliament in 1993. Schreiber had hired Elmer MacKay's son Peter MacKay
Peter MacKay
Peter Gordon MacKay, PC, QC, MP is a lawyer and politician from Nova Scotia, Canada. He is the Member of Parliament for Central Nova and currently serves as Minister of National Defence in the Cabinet of Canada....
to work for him at Thyssen AG in Germany in 1992; the plan was to train Peter MacKay as the head of the prospective Thyssen plant to manufacture light armoured vehicles, which had gained initial government approval, but was never built. Peter MacKay is now the Canadian Minister of Defence. In his testimony before the Commons Ethics Committee on November 29, Schreiber further elaborated on this situation.
On November 30, Schreiber's lawyer Edward Greenspan was successful in an appeal to the Ontario Superior Court for a stay in Schreiber's extradition to Germany; this was then delayed indefinitely, to allow Schreiber to appear before the Commons Ethics Committee. Greenspan planned a further appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.
Schreiber remained under confinement at the Ottawa Detention Centre, with limited access to his files stored in his Ottawa home; his lawyer Edward Greenspan claimed this situation made it difficult for Schreiber to prepare properly for his appearances before the Ethics Committee, explaining his partial answers to questions from MPs. Greenspan stated he aimed to achieve bail for Schreiber as soon as possible.
On December 4, 2007, represented by lawyer Richard Auger, Schreiber was granted bail when he posted $1.3 million. He was allowed to live in his Ottawa home while testifying before the Commons Ethics Committee. In his second day of testimony before the Ethics Committee, on December 4, Schreiber stated that the $300,000 which he paid Mulroney from 1993-1994 did not involve Airbus, nor did it involve any business which may have occurred between the two men while Mulroney was prime minister. Schreiber provided several files of his correspondence with Mulroney and Harper, for the Committee members to study, so that they could better prepare future questions. Schreiber stated that he had donated $30,000 in cash to the unsuccessful 1993 PC leadership campaign of Jean Charest
Jean Charest
John James "Jean" Charest, PC, MNA is a Canadian politician who has been the 29th Premier of Quebec since 2003. He was leader of the federal Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1993 to 1998 and has been leader of the Quebec Liberal Party since 1998....
through his brother Robert Charest; this was legal at that time. Charest, now the Liberal premier of the province of Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, stated that the amount had been $10,000; in the 1999 book The Last Amigo, by Stevie Cameron
Stevie Cameron
Stevie Cameron is an award-winning Canadian investigative journalist and best-selling author. Born in Belleville, Ontario in 1943, she now lives in Toronto with her husband, David Cameron, a professor at the University of Toronto. They have two daughters; both Toronto-based screenwriters.-Early...
and Harvey Cashore, the donation amount quoted was $13,000. Schreiber also received an apology from the Committee for the degrading treatment he had suffered, when his pants fell down while he was being escorted from the Commons, which had been filmed and shown on television around the world (his belt had been taken from him, as standard procedure with escorted prisoners).
On December 6, Schreiber made his third appearance before the Ethics Committee. He stated that the $300,000, paid in three cash payments to Mulroney in 1993 and 1994, came from a Swiss Bank account, where he had deposited the 'success fees' which Schreiber had earned in commissions for his work as a lobbyist, from successful contracts with Airbus, MBB, and Thyssen in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Airbus and MBB had concluded very large contracts, for airplanes and helicopters respectively, with the Canadian government while Mulroney was prime minister from 1984-1993, while Thyssen's project, a new factory to manufacture light armoured vehicles, the Bear Head project, received initial government approval, but was never built. Schreiber also stated that Mulroney may have also received Airbus money which Schreiber paid to the lobbying firm Government Consultants International, through GCI personnel. Three of the four GCI principal partners at that time -- Frank Moores
Frank Moores
Frank Duff Moores served as the 2nd Premier of Newfoundland. He served as leader of the Progressive Conservatives from 1972 until his retirement in 1979.-Early life:...
, Gary Ouellet
Gary Ouellet
Gary Ouellet was a French-Canadian television producer and magician who lived and worked in the United States.He may be best-known as the driving force behind a number of network television specials that helped some of the top performers in modern magic to gain a national and international profile...
, and Gerald Doucet
Gerald Doucet
Gerald Doucet is a former politician and lobbyist from Nova Scotia, Canada. He represented the electoral district of Richmond in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly from 1963–1974, as a Progressive Conservative.He graduated from St...
-- had close ties to the PC Party and to Mulroney himself. GCI went out of business in 1994, a year after Mulroney stepped down as prime minister. A former employee of the GCI firm is scheduled to testify before the Ethics Committee regarding these matters in the future. Schreiber also claimed that Fred Doucet
Fred Doucet
Jean Alfred "Fred" Doucet is a Canadian lobbyist, educator, university administrator, and political aide. He was Chief of Staff to Brian Mulroney, from 1983 to 1984, when he was Leader of the Opposition and was a Senior Adviser, from 1984 to 1987, after Mulroney was elected Prime Minister of...
(younger brother of Gerald Doucet), who had served as Chief of Staff while Mulroney was Opposition Leader from 1983-1984, and who continued to serve on Mulroney's staff in the Prime Minister's Office after that had in the early 1990s asked Schreiber to send money from the sale of Airbus planes to Mulroney's lawyer in Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
. Fred Doucet has denied that statement. Fred Doucet, who also testified supporting Mulroney in the Mulroney libel case in the mid-1990s, is on the list of future witnesses for the Ethics Committee. Mulroney has refused to comment before his scheduled appearance before the Ethics Committee, set for December 13, 2007.
Subsequent to the Ethics Committee proceedings, a further public enquiry by the Oliphant Commission began in April 2009. The Commission's hearings phase ended in the last week of July and the following weekend, Mr. Schreiber was ordered to appear at the Toronto Detention Centre pending his return to Germany, after a last-ditch effort to find another means of avoiding extradition. Less than three hours later, he was on an aircraft accompanied by Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police , literally ‘Royal Gendarmerie of Canada’; colloquially known as The Mounties, and internally as ‘The Force’) is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal,...
(RCMP) officers and declared "surrendered to Germany."
States that West German funds financed Clark's fall
Schreiber appeared for the fourth time before the Ethics Committee on December 11. He stated that significant funds from West German sources financed the 1983 WinnipegWinnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
ouster of Joe Clark
Joe Clark
Charles Joseph "Joe" Clark, is a Canadian statesman, businessman, and university professor, and former journalist and politician...
as Progressive Conservative leader; Clark had called for a leadership convention, which led five months later to Brian Mulroney winning. Schreiber said he contributed $25,000 himself, and that the late Franz Josef Strauss, Airbus chairman and former Bavarian premier, added a similar amount. Schreiber also raised the possibility that Strauss's political party, the Christian Social Union
Christian Social Union
Christian Social Union may refer to:*Christian Social Union of Bavaria, a political party in Bavaria, Germany*Christian Social Union , a nineteenth and early twentieth-century organization within the Church of England...
, may have also given substantial funds. It was already known from 1983 that Walter Wolf, the Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n-Canadian businessman and entrepreneur, had by his own admission also contributed $25,000 for this project. Mulroney had quickly distanced himself from Wolf following that admission. The money was used to transport and house many pro-Mulroney delegates, who voted against Clark, narrowly denying him sufficient support to continue as leader, despite a large lead over the governing Liberals, led by Pierre Trudeau
Pierre Trudeau
Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau, , usually known as Pierre Trudeau or Pierre Elliott Trudeau, was the 15th Prime Minister of Canada from April 20, 1968 to June 4, 1979, and again from March 3, 1980 to June 30, 1984.Trudeau began his political career campaigning for socialist ideals,...
, in the polls.
A series of successful burglaries in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
in 1984, which targeted files on financial contributions to the Mulroney camp, held in the homes and offices of Walter Wolf, W. David Angus
W. David Angus
W. David Angus, QC is a Canadian Senator and lawyer.-Career:Born in Toronto, Ontario in 1937, Angus moved to Montreal with his family at the age of nine and has been based there ever since. Educated at Lower Canada College, Princeton University and McGill University, Angus is a lawyer and senior...
, Roger Nantel, Rodrigue Pageau, and others, eliminated most if not all records of the German cash, along with material on others' contributions. Despite police investigation, none of the burglaries were ever solved.
Schreiber also stated that he transferred at least $5 million from his deals to the lobbying firm Government Consultants International, which had three senior Tories, Frank Moores
Frank Moores
Frank Duff Moores served as the 2nd Premier of Newfoundland. He served as leader of the Progressive Conservatives from 1972 until his retirement in 1979.-Early life:...
, Gerald Doucet
Gerald Doucet
Gerald Doucet is a former politician and lobbyist from Nova Scotia, Canada. He represented the electoral district of Richmond in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly from 1963–1974, as a Progressive Conservative.He graduated from St...
, and Gary Ouellet
Gary Ouellet
Gary Ouellet was a French-Canadian television producer and magician who lived and worked in the United States.He may be best-known as the driving force behind a number of network television specials that helped some of the top performers in modern magic to gain a national and international profile...
, as part of its management team; all three men had close ties to Mulroney. This money came from firms Airbus, MBB, and Thyssen, which Schreiber was representing for Canadian projects.
The Globe and Mail reported on December 12 that money from Strauss had also financed Moores to the tune of several hundred thousand dollars in the early 1980s, through purchase of some of his isolated rural land holdings in Newfoundland
Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada. Situated in the country's Atlantic region, it incorporates the island of Newfoundland and mainland Labrador with a combined area of . As of April 2011, the province's estimated population is 508,400...
.
On December 11, following his testimony before the Ethics Committee, Schreiber was interviewed by Peter Mansbridge
Peter Mansbridge
Peter Mansbridge, OC , a Canadian broadcaster and news anchor, is the CBC News Chief Correspondent and anchor of The National, CBC Television's flagship nightly newscast. Mansbridge has received many awards and accolades for his journalistic work including an honorary doctorate from Mount Allison...
, anchor of The National newscast on CBC Television
CBC Television
CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...
. Schreiber told Mansbridge that Franz Josef Strauss had a policy of helping to elect conservative-leaning governments around the world, by financing their campaigns, and that the Canadian case was just one example. Schreiber also told Mansbridge that Mulroney knew that the $300,000 in cash that he received from Schreiber from 1993-1994 was coming from the Thyssen account, and that the arrangement called for Mulroney to lobby on behalf of Thyssen to develop the Bear Head project, once he stepped down from office as prime minister in June, 1993. Mulroney did not tell Schreiber at that time that the Bear Head project, which had in 1988 received initial Cabinet approval from three ministers, as well as the Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
government, was cancelled in 1990. Schreiber said he had met with Mulroney and cabinet minister Elmer MacKay
Elmer MacKay
Elmer MacIntosh MacKay, PC, QC is a retired Canadian politician.-Life and career:MacKay was born in Hopewell, Nova Scotia. He was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons as the Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament for Central Nova through a 1971 by-election...
at the prime minister's residence, 24 Sussex Drive
24 Sussex Drive
24 Sussex Drive is the official residence of the Prime Minister of Canada, located in the New Edinburgh neighbourhood of Ottawa, Ontario. Built between 1866 and 1868 by Joseph Merrill Currier, it has been the official home of the Canadian prime minister since 1951.-History:The house at 24 Sussex...
, in March 1993, to discuss the Bear Head project. This contradicted Mulroney's sworn statement made at his 1996 libel trial that he had had no business with Schreiber. Schreiber said that no receipt or invoice was issued at the time for the C$300,000 deal with Mulroney.
Special adviser David Lloyd Johnston
David Lloyd Johnston
David Lloyd Johnston is a Canadian academic, author and statesman who is the current Governor General of Canada, the 28th since Canadian Confederation....
delivered his report on the Mulroney - Schreiber matters to Prime Minister Harper, as scheduled on January 11, 2008. Johnston found 16 significant questions requiring further examination. Harper stated that a limited public inquiry process would begin once the Commons Ethics Committee finished its own work. The Ethics Committee plans to call more witnesses, plans an expanded schedule of hearings, and wishes to further examine Schreiber and Mulroney, when it resumes sitting on January 28, 2008.
Events after his extradition to Germany
After Mr. Schreiber's arrival in Germany, a German court in Augsburg took control of the proceedings and announced that it would hear only charges that he evaded income tax on C$45.6-million earned from negotiating the sale of helicopters, aircraft, and armaments. In May 2010, the court found Schreiber to be guilty of tax evasion of 7.3 million Euros, and sentenced him to eight years in prison.This decision has been overthrown by a German court on September 6, 2011.
In books
Schreiber's career in Canada is reviewed in the 2001 book by Stevie CameronStevie Cameron
Stevie Cameron is an award-winning Canadian investigative journalist and best-selling author. Born in Belleville, Ontario in 1943, she now lives in Toronto with her husband, David Cameron, a professor at the University of Toronto. They have two daughters; both Toronto-based screenwriters.-Early...
and Harvey Cashore, The Last Amigo: Karlheinz Schreiber and the Anatomy of a Scandal. He is prominent in Cameron's On the Take: Crime, Corruption and Greed in the Mulroney Years (1994). Schreiber's Canadian dealings are also featured in two books by William Kaplan
William Kaplan
William Kaplan is a Canadian lawyer and writer.-Biography:William Kaplan is the son of Igor Kaplan and Cara Cherniak. He graduated from the University of Toronto in 1980 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He went on to Osgoode Hall Law School at York University, where he graduated in 1983 with a...
. In 1998, Kaplan wrote Presumed Guilty: Brian Mulroney, the Airbus Affair, and the Government of Canada. In 2004, Kaplan followed up on the latest developments in A Secret Trial: Brian Mulroney, Stevie Cameron, and the Public Trust.