Here in Canada, there is ex-Prime Minister Brian Mulroney who's name was linked by the press to arms dealer Karlheinz Schreiber, but for the Airbus affair.
In 1995, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) accused Mulroney and Frank Moores of accepting kickbacks from Karlheinz Schreiber on the sale of Airbus planes to the government-owned airline during Mulroney's term as Prime Minister of Canada. The allegations were made in a letter sent by the RCMP to the government of Switzerland seeking access to banking records. Schreiber had earlier raised money for Mulroney's successful 1983 bid to win the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party.
Mulroney denied the allegations, and launched a $50 million defamation suit against the Canadian government, alleging that the newly elected Liberal government of Jean Chrétien was engaging in a smear campaign against its predecessor. The government settled out of court in early 1997, and agreed to publicly apologize to Mulroney, as well as paying the former prime minister's $2.1 million legal fees.
Although there is no evidence that Mulroney accepted kickbacks while prime minister, he acknowledged in 2003 that shortly after stepping down in 1993 that he accepted $225,000 over 18 months from Schreiber, in three cash payments of $75,000 each. Mulroney was still a member of the Canadian House of Commons when one of the payments was made. Mulroney claims that this money was paid to him for consulting services he rendered to help promote a fresh pasta business, and to develop international contacts for Schreiber. Mulroney had previously not admitted accepting any commissions from Schreiber during his lawsuit against the Canadian government, and later under oath specifically denied any business dealings with him. Mulroney has not yet provided evidence of any work he performed for that money, and declared it as income to Revenue Canada only years later, when Schreiber had come under criminal investigation in Germany. Schreiber ridiculed their dealings in pasta-macaroni as nothing more than being sent a single flyer, and has stated that the three separate payments were actually $100,000 each in $1000 bills, a total of $300,000.
At the end of 2017, Mr. Mulroney was again mentioned by the media as being friend with another arms dealer, Mr. Wafic Saïd.
Syrian-born Said made headlines as a middleman who helped broker a colossal 1985 arms deal called Al-Yamamah, where British Aerospace sold billions of dollars in military jets and hardware to Saudi Arabia. "I am proud of the role I played in helping to secure the Al-Yamamah program and with it, many tens of thousands of well-paid and highly skilled jobs in the United Kingdom," he said in an email in response to questions from journalists.
Then years ago, he met Mulroney, and in 2004 invited him to sit on the board of Said Holdings Ltd., a company set up in no-tax Bermuda to manage much of the Said family wealth.
Asked why he chose to sit on the board of a company located in a tax haven, Mulroney had his lawyer answer: "The company is operated with the rigour and governance of a public company…. While Said Holdings may not be subject to tax in Bermuda, it regularly pays substantial sums of tax in other jurisdictions where the company invests."
But Said would face a bigger challenge than tax concerns right around the time Mulroney took up his seat on the board. Investigators were looking into the Al-Yamamah arms deal and unearthing evidence of massive corruption.
At one point, it was reported that a Saudi prince was getting paid $50 million every three months in secret commissions. Other media reports said possibly millions of dollars had moved through Swiss accounts, some of which were held by Said.
But as British fraud investigators homed in on the Swiss accounts, Saudi authorities pressured British prime minister Tony Blair to shut down the probe.
Said himself was never the target of any investigation, nor did he face any charges.
"I was not involved in those cases although I did offer to meet the … investigators to assist them in their inquiries," Said wrote in a statement to CBC. "They did not take up my offer. I was never questioned or charged with any wrongdoing in the U.K. or any other jurisdiction then or subsequently."
Mulroney remained on the board of Said Holdings through 2012.
Now (and as some kind of unrelated note), Mulroney's daughter, Caroline has just declared her candidacy for leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario. According to Wikipedia, her husband is the grandson of Lewis A. Lapham who was a member of Skull and Bones.
Also, smarmy Ben Mulroney makes me want to vomit.
Haha, I had totally forgotten about him. Always thought he could end up going back to live at 24 Sussex Drive, but it seems like his twin, Justin, has beaten him to the punch.
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Here is how learned about the Paradise Papers related info (20 min. vid in French):
Enquête : Paradise Papers, des amis haut placés
(a 5 min. English version on the same topic)
Man named in Paradise Papers linked to Brian Mulroney