CBC News: the fifth estate - Money, Truth & Spin: The Man Behind the Leak

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THE MAN BEHIND THE LEAK

One of the remaining mysteries left from the Airbus affair is the identity of the person who leaked the contents of the letter Canadian authorities sent to Swiss authorities naming Brian Mulroney as part of a fraud and kickback investigation.

The Financial Post broke the story about the investigation by the Canadian department of justice.

The RCMP investigates

On November 18, 1995 Financial Post journalist Philip Mathias broke the news that the Canadian Department of Justice sent a request to the Swiss seeking help in investigating an alleged criminal conspiracy involving former Newfoundland Premier Frank Moores, German businessman Karlheinz Schreiber, and Brian Mulroney during the time he was Prime Minister.

The statements contained in the letter to the Swiss formed the basis for Mulroney's high-profile lawsuit filed by the former Prime Minister against the government of Canada. (see the statement of claim . pdf file)

The letter raised allegations in connection with the 1988 sale of Airbus aircraft to Air Canada, the sale of German-built helicopters to the Coast Guard and a proposed plant in Nova Scotia to build military vehicles for the German company Thyssen.

The RCMP publicly stated that there was no evidence Mulroney was ever a part of any conspiracy to defraud the Canadian taxpayer. On April 22, 2003 the RCMP issued a press release stating,

"After an exhaustive investigation in Canada and abroad, the RCMP has concluded its investigation into allegations of wrongdoing involving MBB Helicopters, Thyssen and Airbus… The RCMP has now concluded that the remaining allegations cannot be substantiated and that no charges will be laid..."

Source of the letter a secret

The day Mathias broke the story of the Department Of Justice investigation, Mulroney's lawyers held a press conference to announce the former Prime Minister was suing the government for $50 million. (see the statement of claim . pdf file)

For more than a decade Mathias has kept the identity of his source for the Letter of Request a closely held secret. All he would say publicly to the CBC at the time was that it did not come from Brian Mulroney or people around him.

CTV journalist George Wolff suspects that Schreiber leaked the letter.

Mulroney spokesperson Luc Lavoie also insisted to the media that Mulroney had no idea who leaked the letter.

But George Wolff, a former CTV journalist who was close to Schreiber, believes he knows the answer to the puzzle.

"(Schreiber) told me that, not in so many words that he'd done it, but he spoke to me often of how he had selected Philip Mathias," Wolff recalled. "So here's Schreiber admitting, you know, I picked a journalist, which is the next thing to say, I planted that story, I placed that story." (read more of Wolff's interview with the fifth estate)

Source of the leak: Karlheinz Schreiber?

Author William Kaplan interviewed Schreiber's lawyer Robert Hladun in 1997 for the his book Presumed Guilty and told him he thought Schreiber was the source of the leak.

"You're a smart lawyer and you figure it out." Hladun told Kaplan. "That's basically the way it happened." (read more of Kaplan's interview with the fifth estate)

Schreiber denies he was the source of the leak and has his own ideas about it.

"I asked myself, who the hell got (the Letter of Request)?" Schreiber said in an interview with the fifth estate. "So one is my lawyer and another one is a friend who got it, that's it. Mulroney is three, three people got it. So three possibilities, not from me. "

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Mathias refuses to name the source

The fifth estate asked Mathias for an on camera interview but he declined the invitation.

Mathias' former colleague at the National Post, Andrew Coyne, says the leaking of the letter was the act which actually constituted the libel.

Financial Post reporter Philip Mathias has never disclosed who gave him the Letter of Request.

"What made it a libel was that it was printed in the Financial Post and everyone could read it there," Andrew Coyne told the fifth estate. "Obviously Mr. Mulroney would be very concerned about his reputation ... but for the police to be passing back and forth allegations to each other on its own it seems to me is not terribly blameworthy."

Schreiber has long been suspected as source of the Letter of Request that wound up with Mathias. Those suspicions grew when it was revealed by CBC reporter Neil MacDonald that the document in Mathias' position was the same translation of the letter Mulroney's lawyers had filed in court the day they launched their lawsuit.

Mathias had obtained a translation of the justice department letter prepared for Mulroney by Schreiber's lawyers in Switzerland.

"So how could a private document prepared for Mulroney by his own lawyers find its way into the hands of the reporter who broke the story?" Neil MacDonald asked at the end of his news item. "Off camera Mulroney's spokesperson first hinted it might have been leaked by Justice officials. Then he called back to say Justice officials had never been given a copy of the document. Then he pointed out that it had been prepared by Swiss lawyers originally." (see the news report 3:57)

"Then he finally said it's just all a mystery."

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