Doucet slams Schreiber's testimony as false

An ex-adviser to former prime minister Brian Mulroney lashed out against Karlheinz Schreiber on Tuesday, accusing the German-Canadian businessman of making a slew of false statements under oath.

Fred Doucet said he never asked Schreiber to funnel money from the Canadian government's Airbus deal to Mulroney's Swiss lawyer, as Schreiber claimed in sworn testimony he gave to the federal ethics committee in December.

Doucet, giving his own sworn testimony to the ethics committee in Ottawa, denied the meeting between himself and Schreiber ever took place in 1992 or 1993, as Schreiber insisted.

"Mr. Schreiber also flippantly alleged before this committee that I may have been trying to obtain money for myself by using the alleged 'Mulroney' lawyer in Geneva," Doucet testified.

"Since this alleged event never occurred, these statements made by Mr. Schreiber are false. I did not know any lawyers in Geneva, Switzerland, or indeed anywhere else in that country."

Mulroney has always denied benefiting in any way from the $1.8-billion deal given to Airbus in 1988 to provide new jetliners to Air Canada.

Mulroney, who was prime minister when the deal was signed, was investigated by the RCMP for his role in the deal. Mulroney launched a libel suit over the allegations and was awarded a $2.1-million settlement from the federal government in 1997.

Doucet, who formally advised Mulroney from 1983 to 1987 but stayed in close touch with him afterward, also attacked Schreiber's claims on matters apart from Airbus on Tuesday.

No recollection of setting up Harrington Lake talk

Specifically, Doucet noted that he had no recollection of setting up a meeting between Mulroney and Schreiber on June 23, 1993, two days before Mulroney ended his last term as prime minister.

Schreiber alleges he negotiated a $300,000 lobbying deal with Mulroney during that meeting at the prime ministerial retreat at Harrington Lake, Que. Schreiber has said he paid Mulroney to lobby the Canadian government on behalf of the German company Thyssen to build a light-armoured vehicle plant.

Mulroney has testified that no business was discussed when he visited with Schreiber at Harrington Lake. He has said he and Schreiber only entered a business arrangement once he stepped down as prime minister, and that the deal — worth $225,000, not $300,000 — was for him to promote Thyssen light armoured vehicles in foreign countries on Schreiber's behalf.

The ethics committee is probing the business deal between Mulroney and Schreiber, during which Schreiber paid Mulroney using several envelopes stuffed with cash — something neither Schreiber nor Mulroney have denied.

Doucet says deal worth $250,000

Doucet, now a lobbyist, brought out more questions about the exact value of the deal, testifying that he was told by Schreiber that Mulroney was to be paid $250,000. Doucet said he has a document approved by both Mulroney and Schreiber in 2000 that states as much.

Doucet said he was at the one of the meetings where Schreiber handed a cash-filled envelope to Mulroney. He said Schreiber requested that Doucet set up the meeting, which was held in New York City in 1994.

Doucet said that at the meeting, which lasted more than an hour, Mulroney talked about the conversations he'd had on Schreiber's behalf with the leaders of China, Russia and France. Mulroney explained how he told the foreign leaders that the light armoured vehicles, made by Schreiber's client Thyssen, could play an important role in the United Nation's peacekeeping initiatives. 

"It is my recollection that Mr. Schreiber appeared to be quite satisfied with the report and comments made to him by Mulroney," Doucet said. "At the end of the meeting, Mr. Schreiber handed Mr. Mulroney an envelope, indicating that it contained payment for services and expenses."

Doucet said he did not actually see the cash and did not know exactly how much the envelope contained. He said he couldn't recall any other details about the meeting, despite being grilled about it by MPs on the ethics committee.

Posted bail out of 'sympathy'

Earlier Tuesday, Marc Lalonde, who worked as a lawyer for Schreiber, testified before the ethics committee, explaining that Schreiber has never paid him in cash in the 21 years he's known him.

Lalonde said that Schreiber always sent cheques and bank transfers, as is normal practice for all of Lalonde's clients. In fact, Lalonde said the only time he ever saw Schreiber pay anyone cash was when he gave Lalonde's grandsons $10 to play pinball.

MP Robert Thibault, a Liberal member of the ethics committee, contrasted Lalonde's experiences with Mulroney's.

"Mr. Mulroney said that he received payments from Mr. Schreiber in cash because that was the way Mr. Schreiber did business. You did find another way of doing business, a standard way, in your dealings with him," Thibault said to Lalonde.

"I have no comments on that except to say that that's what happened in my case," Lalonde replied.

Lalonde, who was a Liberal cabinet minister under Liberal prime ministers John Turner and Pierre Elliott Trudeau, was also asked to explain why he posted $100,000 in bail money on Schreiber's behalf in December.

Lalonde's offer came when the Ontario Appeal Court agreed to release Schreiber on $1.3-million bail while he fought extradition to Germany, where he faces charges of fraud, tax evasion and bribery.

Lalonde said Schreiber was short about $150,000 and turned to friends and acquaintances for help. Lalonde said Schreiber was a friend, and he felt "sympathy" for him. He said he would do the same for any friend.

"I did that without any hesitation," Lalonde said.

"Mr. Schreiber has never been charged or convicted of anything whatsoever in Canada. I saw no reason why he should stay in prison for purely financial reasons, because he didn't have enough money to put up the required bail."