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WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 8, 2006 | Bookmark this page | E-mail to a friend |
(43:00)German Canadian businessman Karlheinz
Schreiber was the target
of a strange RCMP undercover sting operation that appears was designed
to entrap him into committing crimes in Canada.
Further, court documents show the RCMP used a 'foreign agency'
that helped them to 'inflitrate' Karlheinz Schreiber. (see an affidavit in
Eurocopter case which reveals RCMP undercover operation targeting
Schreiber)
It is not clear what the RCMP was trying to achieve by launching
the operation.
Karlheinz Schreiber was the target of an RCMP sting operation.It is unclear if Cogger knew the man he was vouching for was working for the RCMP.
RCMP Inspector A.K. Matthews revealed the undercover operation in an affidavit he swore to support the continuation of a seal on information contained in a search warrant. The warrant was part of a court proceeding involving allegations of commissions paid to Schreiber in the sale of helicopters to the Canadian Coast Guard in the mid-1980s.
The undercover operation against Schreiber began in November 2000.
"Initial steps in the undercover operation involved establishing contact with a former associate of Schreiber through whom it was hoped an introduction could occur. The approach was accomplished in turn through an associate of this party."
Schreiber says he can't understand why Cogger was involved in the sting operation."I don't believe in a million years that Mr. Cogger
did this voluntarily," said Schreiber. "No way. Why
would he do that?
"He confirmed, when this undercover agent approached me, and said look, please call Mr. Cogger, he will tell you that I am okay and that everything is fine with me."
Cogger refused to answer questions about the RCMP operation when the fifth estate called to ask about Schreiber's claims.
Schreiber and Cogger have known each other for decades. According to Schreiber, Cogger was once his lawyer and it was Cogger who introduced him to Frank Moores and then to Brian Mulroney.
Cogger and Moores would go on to play important roles in the 1983 PC convention in Winnipeg in which Schreiber would help finance the stacking of the convention with newly minted anti-Joe Clark delegates from Quebec. The financing helped end Clark's leadership, and led to his replacement with Mulroney.
The fifth estate tried contacting Minasian at the numbers he provided to Schreiber but one was disconnected and the other was answered by a woman who said she never heard of him. An e-mail address he also provided Schreiber, no longer works.
Inspector Matthews laid out the international aspect of the investigation
in his affidavit.
"RCMP investigators, in cooperation with a foreign agency,
have sought to infiltrate Schreiber as a target," Matthews
wrote. "The principle undercover operator (UCO) in this scenario
has now successfully approached Schreiber portraying an entrepreneur
engaged in various export/import enterprises."
According to Schreiber, Minasian tried to get him involved in selling sophisticated high speed Russian torpedoes that the Russian mafia had somehow acquired to the American government.
Minasian, according to Schreiber, then said he wanted to sell housing units to the Canadian armed forces. However, Schreiber told him the course he was suggesting could get him arrested.
Minasian continued to keep in contact with Schreiber, eventually showing up with raw diamonds, and asked for his help in placing them.
"When I look back, yeah, I had the funny feeling somehow, but I never thought that this would be an undercover agent from the Canadian government. I thought perhaps it's somebody who was somehow cuckoo."
Surprisingly, the RCMP link to Minasian would have been easy to uncover had Schreiber checked into the history of one of the companies he put down as a contact.
It was in its previous incarnation as Aroga Money Brokers that the company was first used in undercover RCMP operations.
Aroga grew out of Project Mercury and is described in the 1996 case of Regina v Matthiessen as "a joint forces covert operation between the United States Customs Services, the United States Internal Revenue Services and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police ("R.C.M.P.") in Windsor, Ontario."
Project Mercury was designed to gather intelligence on criminals who were trying to use Canada's financial system to launder illegal income.
"Aroga Money Brokers Ltd. was incorporated as a currency exchange to operate out of the same office but to trade in American and Canadian currency. The offices were manned by undercover operatives who were members of the RCMP"
It is unclear why the RCMP would link its operation to a company
with a public connection to undercover sting operations.
The Matthiessen court case revealing the RCMP establishment of Aroga
Money Brokers is available on line through Lexis Nexis.
^TOP