Accountant Says RCMP Investigation Erred

Brian Mulroney, Canada's former Prime Minister, has been implicated in a scandal involving kickbacks from Airbus in exchange for Air Canada orders for the company's planes.

When details of an investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were leaked to the press, Mulroney waged a successful libel suit, and was awarded $1.8 million in 1997.

Now, the Edmonton Sun quotes accountant Giorgio Pelossi, with the Swiss firm Karlheinz Schreiber, as saying that in 1996, he not only had the goods on Mulroney... but laid it all out in six hours of tape-recorded testimony to the RCMP, complete with documentation of secret Swiss bank accounts.

The Mounties never met with officials of the accounting firm to follow up, until the libel settlement had already been paid.

In testimony before the House of Commons ethics committee last Thursday, Pelosi said he doesn't know if any money was actually paid by Airbus to Mulroney, but regardless, lawmakers are not amused.

New Democrat Member of Parliament Thomas Mulcair is one of them. "Here we have someone who was interviewed by the RCMP for six hours 12 years ago, gave them chapter and verse, had all his documents with him -- and they still never met with Schreiber until (after) the settlement with Mulroney.

"Either they sent in Inspector Clouseau to do this investigation in Europe, or they've got a lot of explaining to do," he said.

FMI: Canadian Courts System