Brian Mulroney |
Karlheinz Schreiber |
Frank Moores |
Frank Moores
Frank Moores was born in 1933 in Carbonear, Newfoundland. In his early years,
he worked in the family fish packing business.
Frank
Moores when he became the first Conservative Premier of Newfoundland in
1972.
(CP photo)
First Conservative Premier of Newfoundland
Moores was first elected to the House of Commons in 1968 and a year later
was elected president of the PC party of Canada. He left Ottawa and four
years later made history by becoming the first Conservative Premier of Newfoundland
beating the legendary Joey Smallwood. He would remain Premier until 1979.
At the 1976 PC leadership race, Moores nominated an up and coming Quebec
lawyer named
Brian Mulroney to lead
the party. Mulroney lost to an Alberta MP named Joe Clark.
Moores joined Mulroney allies Michel Cogger and Elmer MacKay in helping to
organize the dump Clark movement, which, in a PC convention in Winnipeg in
the winter of 1983, helped convince Clark to call a leadership convention.
In an interview with CBC's
the fifth estate,
Karlheinz
Schreiber admitted
that he provided money to fly newly minted Tory delegates to Winnipeg
to vote against Clark.
Lobbying the government
In 1985, Moores incorporated Government Consultants International (GCI),
which would become one of the best connected lobbying firms in Ottawa.
Among his most important contacts was Karlheinz Schreiber.
Moores was appointed to the board of directors of Air Canada in 1985 but
was forced to resign when the press learned that GCI was lobbying for two
of Air Canada's rival airlines. Moores was also lobbying on behalf of Airbus
at the time.
Besides Airbus, Moores' GCI lobbied on behalf of Schreiber's other
German business clients, Messershmitt Bolkow Blohm and Thyssen Industries.
Schreiber would receive millions of dollars in secret commissions and fees
from his connections to Canadian government departments and Crown corporations.
Karlheinz Schreiber with Frank Moores
Just how close Schreiber became to Moores was demonstrated in 1990, when
Moores moved into a Florida condominium bought by Schreiber's business associate
Giorgio Pelossi. The condominium, Pelossi would later say, was bought on
Schreiber's instructions.
Connection to a scandal
In 1995, the Canadian Department of Justice sent a
letter to
Swiss authorities asking for information about an alleged conspiracy between
Moores, Schreiber and Mulroney when he was Prime Minister, to receive secret
commissions through the sale of Airbus aircraft to Air Canada.
Just four days before the Financial Post broke the story of the letter
to the Swiss, Moores filed a
voluntary tax
disclosure for money he received
from Schreiber.
Moores continued to deny doing any lobbying for Airbus Industrie and
lied to CBC's
the fifth estate when he said he didn't
have any Swiss bank accounts.
Moore's Swiss bank accounts
In fact, Schreiber met Moores in Zurich in 1986, where Moores opened two
accounts. According to Schreiber's former accountant Giorgio Pelossi, Moores
was told that half of the money Schreiber received in secret Airbus commissions
would go to the new Swiss accounts numbered 34107 and 34117 code-named
Devon. The Devon account, according to Pelossi, had been set up for Mulroney.
(See Swiss
banking
document for Frank Moores' Devon account)
When reporters started to ask questions about the Devon account, Moores'
wife Beth said the account belonged to her. However, Frank Moores would
later tell Financial Post journalist Philip Mathias that she was incorrect.
Moores finally admitted that he had the accounts, but sent the Airbus
story spinning when he released records showing the Devon account never
held more than $500.
Frank
Moores in a 2004 interview with CBC-TV.
On January 9th, 1997, the RCMP and the Department of Justice sent a letter
to Moores stating:
"Some of the language contained in the Request for
Assistance indicates, wrongly, that the RCMP had reached conclusions
that you had engaged in criminal activity.
Based on what is set out above, and as a matter of logical consistency,
the Government of Canada and the RCMP fully apologize to you for that
language, and regret any effect that it may have had on you or your family."
Moores
died in Perth, Ontario on July 11th, 2005 from cancer.
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