Trial of German lobbyist involved in 1990s scandal begins

Karlheinz Schreiber, a German lobbyist and arms dealer allegedly involved in a slush-fund scandal implicating several of the country's high-ranking politicians, went on trial on Monday.

Schreiber is charged with tax evasion and fraud, as well as the bribery of a German official in connection with an arms deal with Saudi Arabia dating back to 1991.

If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in jail. He denies all the charges.

Schreiber fled to Canada in the 1990s as the affair triggered wide-ranging political fallout in Germany. In August of last year, following an extensive legal battle, Schreiber was deported to Germany to face charges.

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5137701,00.html

Karlheinz Schreiber

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 Winnipeg 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 <24>. It was already known from 1983 that Walter Wolf, the Austrian-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<25>. 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<15>.

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<26>.

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.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karlheinz_Schreiber

Thanks for the post. Too bad Parliament is prorogued. There could be some interesting revelations. I hope the Canadian media doesn't ignore this.

he certainly deserves the same treatment, imo.

No doubt Mulroney will get nothing more than a slap on the wrist, but I want to see how it goes down anyway.