8 things revealed by RCMP's court filings on Mike Duffy - Action News
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Politics

8 things revealed by RCMP's court filings on Mike Duffy

Court documents filed by the RCMP in June as part of the investigation into Senator Mike Duffy's expense claims include new information but also raise new questions.

Senator is being investigated for 3 different possible acts of fraud

Embattled Senator Mike Duffy is the subject of an extensive RCMP investigation into his expenses during the time he's been a senator. (Patrick Doyle/Canadian Press)

New information revealed in documents filed by the RCMP about Senator Mike Duffys expensesraises new questions.

Theyrange from how Duffy approached the question of his residency from the moment he was first appointed to the Senate to how much the Prime Minister's Office knew about a $90,000 bank draft to repay his inappropriately claimed expenses.

Thecourt documentscontain allegations that have not been proven in court.

Here's a look at the new information and the questions it raises.

1. The documents reveal the RCMP is investigating Duffyovernot just one, but threeseparatefraud allegations:

  • For expenses perhaps fraudulently claimed for Ottawa housing and per diem costs, because Duffy said his primary residence was in P.E.I.
  • For possible fraudulent per diem claims submitted while he was vacationing in Florida or while he was campaigning for the Conservative Party in the last federal election.
  • For accepting, perhaps fraudulently, a payment from Nigel Wright, the prime minister's top aide,in exchange for a deal that would allow himto pay backhis inappropriately claimed expensesquickly and without protestandfor apromise a Senate report would "go easy on him."

2. Amid opposition party demands for an investigation, the RCMP, of its own volition, began investigating Duffy in March. That was two months beforea Deloitte audit of Duffy's residency, commissioned by the Senate, was made public, and before a Senate committee voted torefer Duffy's expenses to the RCMP.

3. Although Duffy claimed his primary residence was in P.E.I., the documents reveal he's lived in Ottawa since 1971. However, heapplied for a P.E.I. driver's licence on Dec. 22, 2008the same day it was announcedhe had been selected for appointment to the Senate.

4. In passport applications in 2007 and 2012, Duffy gave his Ottawa address as his permanent residence.

5. The documents reveal the Conservative Party initially believed Duffy owed only $32,000, an amount the party was apparently willing to pay. This amount may refer to the $34,000 the Deloitte report calculated Duffy had claimed in housing costs in Ottawa and per diems during the 18-month period of Deloitte's examination.

It is not clear why the party didn't know that Senator David Tkachuk, at the time chair of the Senate committee on internal economy, had written Duffy onFeb. 27 telling him he actually owed $90,172.

6. Lawyers for Nigel Wright, the prime minister's former chief of staff, told the RCMP thatwhen Wright gave Duffy $90,000he didn't know about any fraudulent claims on Duffy's part.But Wright was in contact with Senator Tkachuk during the time Deloitte was preparing its report, and it was Deloitte that discovered Duffy had claimed per diems for being on Senate business while on vacation in Florida.

7.It is not clear why the chair of the Conservative Fund, Senator Irving Gerstein, thought it was OK for the party to bear the cost of $32,000 for Duffy, but not $90,000.

8. Wright, in a statement given when he resigned, said heaccepted "sole responsibility" for the decisionto give money to Duffy. But the documents revealthat Wright's lawyers told the RCMP that three other senior people in the Prime Minister's Officeknew about the $90,000 cheque, as did Gerstein.