Karlheinz Schreiber deported from Canada

[iverglas]

Source: Canwest News Service


OTTAWA — Only hours after a Toronto judge has upheld a deportation order for Karlheinz Schreiber, the controversial German-Canadian businessman was on a plane headed back to Germany Sunday night to face multiple criminal charges, reports say.

... Schreiber, 75, is a German-Canadian businessman who has been wanted in Germany since 1999 on charges of tax evasion, fraud, bribery and breach of trust. He is the central figure in an ethics probe of former prime minister Brian Mulroney.

Speaking to reporters outside the Toronto detention centre, Schreiber claimed the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper wanted to be rid of him because he was an embarrassment to Mulroney and to the Conservative party.

... Mulroney has told the public inquiry he took $225,000 cash to lobby internationally on behalf of a Schreiber-promoted plan to build light-armoured vehicles in Canada. Schreiber says he paid Mulroney $300,000 to lobby domestically on behalf of the German-sponsored project.

... Schreiber has held Canadian citizenship for nearly three decades. A Canadian ruling on his extradition described him as a man who “operated at the highest levels of international finance and government as a lobbyist, consultant and deal-maker in relation to the sale of helicopters, Airbus aircraft and armaments.”

Read more: http://www.canada.com/news/Karlheinz+Schreiber+deported+from+Canada/1854613/story.html

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If only we could get them to take Mulroney.

[PDJane]

1. and Harper........

and possibly Stockwell Day, too. The Americans currently have Conrad Black, but his propaganda organ continues to publish, darn it.

[iverglas]

2. heh

Surely nobody deserves all that. ;)

[PDJane]

3. I didn't say they deserved it.........

I just was engaging in wishful thinking.

[iverglas]

6. in case I was confusing

I meant: the poor Germans didn't deserve it!

I know you wouldn't really wish them on the Germans. ;)

[daleo]

4. I wonder what might come to light about Mulroney in Germany

There could be some major fallout from German investigations.

[iverglas]

5. and would that not just be the nicest thing?

that couldn't happen to a nicer person? ;)

Maybe Newsworld, with its new format, will give us two-sentence reports on the proceedings, repeated every hour on the hour ...

Damn, I'm going to miss Sunday Morning.

[daleo]

7. I hope some German speaking Canadian bloggers follow the reports from Germany

I don't think our mainstream media will put a lot of effort into this, once the story switches to Germany. The Fifth Estate might stay on the job though...I hope so anyway.

[CHIMO]

8. No Respect

I tell you. You just can't get any respect.

After getting Mulrooney to lead the PCs he's thrown out of the country by the same party.
Well not exactly the same party. And Harper doesn't need too many from the old guard around. Hmm... I wonder.

Arms dealer with ties to Merkel's party extradited to Germany

The 75-year-old, who holds dual Canadian and German citizenship, arrived in Munich on Monday after fighting extradition from Canada for ten years.

His arrival in Germany could spell trouble for Chancellor Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) before next month's federal elections because it's expected to dig up past allegations over party slush funds which led to the fall of former Chancellor Helmut Kohl.

A spokesman for the court in Augsburg, Karl-Heinz Häusler, said it was not possible to say whether the politically-sensitive trial would begin before national elections on September 27.

Schreiber is accused of playing a key role in the massive slush fund scandal that rocked the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in the 1990s. It also ended the political career of former Chancellor Helmut Kohl and paved the way for current Chancellor Angela Merkel's rise to power.

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4536859,00.html

Wheels within wheels.
Anyone for pasta?

[iverglas]

9. and they think nothing happens in Canada ;)

But then of course the rest of it is just happening in Germany, so who cares on that count either?


http://www.rabble.ca/news/why-mulroney-schreiber-scandal-matters

"Why the Mulroney-Schreiber scandal matters"

Not really just in this northern backwater.

By James Laxer
December 12, 2007

... The affair does have a much deeper importance, though, which is rooted in the way key decisions were made in Canada during the crucial decade of the 1980s. It was the decade when Canada signed on to the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States. The FTA, and its successor NAFTA, drove a stake into the heart of Canadian democracy. ...

What has all this to do with Karlheinz Schreiber?

We know that, acting on the instructions of his Bavarian masters, whose leader was Franz Joseph Strauss, Minister President of Bavaria and the dominant voice in the Christian Social Union (CSU), the fervently right-wing partner in German politics of the more moderate Christian Democratic Union, Schreiber helped finance the overthrow of Joe Clark as leader of the Progressive Conservatives (PC).

... Schreiber and the Bavarians had played a role, quite likely decisive, in nudging the support to dump Clark above the thirty per cent level at Winnipeg. With Mulroney as PC leader and later as prime minister, Schreiber and his associates felt they had a man with whom they could come to understandings.

... What matters more than how the deal was or was not lubricated, is that during the 1980s Canada was being put out of the business of fostering national industrial champions so that it could play in the big leagues. And this benefited both the Europeans and the Americans.

Yes, Canada was the victim this time. But in Mulroney, Thatcher and Reagan had an ally they would not have had in Clark. And Mulroney led to Harper ...

Right-wing money making the world go round.

[CHIMO]

10. How Schreiber's 'grease money' will come back to haunt Canada

The politicians, military brass and party operatives who once counted themselves as part of Karlheinz Schreiber's inner circle in Canada shouldn't necessarily be relieved to see him confined to a German jail cell.

Just because he's gone from Canada, doesn't mean he's done with his adopted country - thanks to an old German tax law concerning the deductibility of bribes. Most of the charges that the 75-year-old lobbyist faces in Germany relate to tax evasion. German authorities allege that tens of millions of dollars in undeclared income was funnelled into Mr. Schreiber's Swiss bank accounts during his heyday as a middleman, when he travelled the globe brokering lucrative contracts for airplane, helicopter and tank manufacturers.

One of Mr. Schreiber's defence strategies is almost certain to be that all of that money wasn't income, and he may argue that some was earmarked as schmiergelder - literally "grease money" - that was used to influence decision makers.

In 2001, German authorities had to reduce the amount of tax that they alleged Mr. Schreiber had evaded to about $16-million from $52-million because they didn't account for expenses, which included, as Mr. Schreiber's lawyer put it, "useful donations."

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/how-schreibers-grease-money-will-come-back-to-haunt-canada/article1240468/

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/how-schreibers-grease-money-will-come-back-to-haunt-canada/article1240468/
How about the chartered flights to the convention that put Brian in charge. Those young kids.