I have no doubt that like in any really decent crime drama on TV or at the movies, the Liberal Party made this all just as complicated as possible to—they’d hoped—avoid anybody ever figuring it all out.
You try to figure out some of today’s mess, as exposed at the Gomery Inquiry into Liberal Party corruption, which just keeps churning out more and more tales of Liberal Party corruption. All I can figure out for sure is that it sounds like money laundering—of my money—and with the express purpose of feeding cash to the Liberal Party:
Former PMO staffer says sponsorship firm paid him $25,000 for Liberal work
MONTREAL (CP) – An aide in Prime Minister Paul Martin’s office told the sponsorship inquiry Wednesday he was paid $28,000 under the table to work for the Liberals in the late 1990s.
Gaetano Manganiello, who is on a paid leave of absence from his job as a media officer in the PMO, said he worked off the books as a party logistics specialist in 1998 and 1999. He said the then-boss of the party’s Quebec wing, Benoit Corbeil, approached him at the Montreal headquarters and said the party was in dire financial straights.
Corbeil said the party could no longer afford his salary but explained the Pluri Design graphic firm, owned by Jean Chretien’s friend Jacques Corriveau, could step in to pay him, Manganiello testified.
“I was informed by Mr. Corbeil that Pluri Design would pay my salary but I would continue working at the Liberal party,” Manganiello told the inquiry, saying he was on the firm’s payroll for nine months.
“He (Corbeil) didn’t tell me why, but in all fairness, I didn’t ask why either.”
Under cross-examination from Liberal lawyer Doug Mitchell, Manganiello said he agreed to testify after receiving a call from a top official in Martin’s office.
Manganiello said he provided information on the alleged payments to Scott Reid, Martin’s director of communications, who then forwarded the information to a Justice Department official.
He also told the inquiry two other Liberal workers were on Corriveau’s payroll. He identified the men as Philippe Zrihen and Jean Brisebois.
In addition, Manganiello said he had personal use of a van given to him by Jean Brault’s Groupaction Marketing, the ad firm at the centre of the sponsorship scandal.
[…] Manganiello isn’t the first member of the current government to say he did work for the party while being paid by a sponsorship ad agency.
John Welch, a former aide to Heritage Minister Liza Frulla, testified that he organized two Liberal fundraisers while on Brault’s payroll.
But Welch categorically denied working full time for the Liberals while earning a total of $97,000 from Groupaction in 1999 and 2000.
Dezainde, currently press officer for Economic Development Minister Jacques Saada, denied accusations by another party official that he was paid $3,000 with unregistered cash during the 2000 campaign.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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