Where There's Smoke - There's More Smoke

A fascinating account in today's Globe & Mail about Frank Moores, Gerry and Fred Doucet, Government Consultants International, Thyssen, KarlHeinz Schreiber and the never to be Bear Head armoured vehicle plant.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080314.wpayments14/BNStory/mulroney/home

The story has an interesting account about a certain "letter of intent", money that flowed from Germany and some interesting accounts that were then rendered:

"After the document was signed, one of the first invoices to arrive for Mr. Schreiber was from Fred Doucet, whose new company was Fred Doucet Consulting International.

It was dated Nov. 2, 1988, which was less than three months after Mr. Doucet left his government job and about a month after the document was signed. His invoice was for $90,000.
Other invoices started rolling in. The law firm of Gerry Doucet, Mr. Doucet's brother, also billed for $90,000. Gary Ouellet's consulting company billed for a further $90,000. Frank Moores sent his $90,000 invoice and his lobby firm, Government Consultants International, issued an invoice for $250,000.

All of the invoices used similar language to describe the work that was performed: “professional services,” “services rendered” and “consulting services.”

And sure enough, over a period of 20 days, money started winding its way from Germany back to the lobbyists. Thyssen sent $2-million to one of Mr. Schreiber's Liechtenstein shell companies. That was transferred to another shell company, which in turn sent $1-million to one of Mr. Schreiber's Swiss bank accounts. Then, $610,000 was transferred out of the Swiss bank account – codenamed “Frankfurt” – the same day Fred Doucet invoiced Mr. Schreiber.

After the money made its way through another Liechtenstein company, Mr. Schreiber paid all of the parties – a total of $610,000 – on Nov. 15, 1988, from one of his Calgary companies, Bitucan."

Maybe it's just coincidence. Maybe Fred Doucet and maybe Gerry Doucet and maybe Frank Moores each really did do work costing exactly, to the penny, $90,000.00. But we may never know. Frank, of course, is long dead and neither Fred nor Gerry seem to want to talk about it.

Wait, I know. We should just ask KarlHeinz. He paid them.