Brian Mulroney talks to reporters after becoming Progressive Conservative leader in 1983. (Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press)

January 1983: Joe Clark fails to receive enough support from delegates at the Progressive Conservative's national convention, triggering his resignation and a leadership race that Brian Mulroney wins. German-Canadian businessman Karlheinz Schreiber later tells The Fifth Estate he helped fund a movement that paid for anti-Clark delegates to attend the convention.

June 11, 1983: Mulroney takes the helm of the party, beating Clark in the final ballot. More than two months later, he is elected to represent the Central Nova riding in Nova Scotia.

Sept. 17, 1984: Mulroney is sworn in as prime minister after the Progressive Conservative party wins a landslide victory on Sept. 4.

Feb. 19, 1985: International Aircraft Leasing (IAL), a Liechtenstein shell company set up by Schreiber and his Swiss accountant, Giorgio Pelossi, in 1984, signs a secret contract with German aircraft manufacturer MBB (Messerschmitt Bolkow-Blohm) to sell helicopters to the Canadian government. Read the contract.

March 7, 1985: IAL signs a contract with Airbus Industrie whereby IAL receives commissions of up to three per cent for every plane sold to Canada. Pelossi will later say Schreiber set up the contract but did not sign it himself in order to obscure the money trail. Read the contract.

March 12, 1985: The Mulroney government fires the Air Canada board of directors and replaces them. One of the new appointees is former N.L. premier Frank Moores.

Brian Mulroney and former Newfoundland premier Frank Moores speak at the Conservative leader convention in Ottawa in 1976. (Canadian Press)

May 3, 1985: The federal government agrees to purchase helicopters for the Coast Guard from MBB.

Sept. 6, 1985: Moores resigns from Air Canada board after reports of a conflict of interest involving his lobbying firm, Government Consultants International (GCI), and rival airlines.

Nov. 6, 1985: Schreiber sets up Bear Head Industries in Ottawa to lobby on behalf of German corporate giant Thyssen Industries and its proposal to build a light-armoured vehicle factory in Bear Head on the southern coast of Cape Breton island, N.S.

June, 1986: MBB's Canadian subsidiary, MCL, signs a contract with the Department of Supply and Services to provide 12 helicopters to the Canadian Coast Guard. The agreement contains a "no bribe" clause prohibiting the paying of commissions

Nov. 26, 1987: Thyssen Industries writes to IAL's Giorgio Pelossi about the Bear Head project, saying it promised Schreiber payment of a contingency fee to IAL for $4 million if IAL met two conditions, one of which is a written letter of intent from the government for a contract for 300 armoured vehicles to be provided by the proposed Bear Head plant.

Dec. 24, 1987: Pelossi writes Thyssen saying IAL has fulfilled one of the conditions for getting the contingency fee for the Bear Head project.

Dec. 28, 1987: Pelossi gets letter from Thyssen Industries saying IAL's activities are only of any value to Thyssen if it can get the letter of intent. In the meantime, Thyssen releases $1.9 million to IAL's bank account in Liechtenstein.

July 20, 1988: Air Canada announces that it will buy 34 Airbus A320 planes from Airbus Industrie for $1.8 billion. Some time after the announcement, Boeing, believing secret commissions had been paid by Airbus, conducts an investigation into the sale. The FBI and the RCMP also conduct investigations into allegations that commissions were paid.

Sept. 27, 1988: The federal government signs an "understanding in principle" with Thyssen Industries for the proposed manufacturing facility at Bear Head. Schreiber and three Mulroney cabinet ministers sign the document. After receiving the understanding in principle, Thyssen sends a check for $2 million to IAL.

Oct. 5, 1988: Airbus Industrie makes first payment to IAL after Air Canada agrees to purchases 34 Airbus aircraft. The payment is for $5 million US.

Oct. 20, 1988: Schreiber's Swiss account, under the code name Frankfurt, receives its first infusion of Airbus commission money, totaling $658,735 Cdn.

Nov. 21, 1988: Brian Mulroney elected to second majority government.

1991: Schreiber and Pelossi have a falling out after Schreiber says he discovered Pelossi has been skimming money from his commissions.

Aug. 26, 1991: Schreiber meets German Christian Democratic Union treasurer Walther Leisler Kiep in the parking lot of a Swiss pizzeria where he passes him a suitcase packed with a million German marks.

Adviser and longtime friend Fred Doucet, right, speaks with Brian Mulroney in this 1986 photo in Montreal. (Canadian Press)

Dates unknown, 1992-1993: Schreiber would later say Mulroney's former advisor, Fred Doucet, met with him in late 1992 or early 1993 to ask Schreiber to funnel money from the Canadian government's Airbus deal to Mulroney's Swiss lawyer. Doucet allegedly complained that Frank Moores was receiving too much of the Airbus commission money. Schreiber said he refused to transfer the funds. Doucet has denied the claim.

April 28, 1992: Then-federal public works minister Elmer MacKay questions his government's choice of General Motors for a contract to build its light-armoured vehicles instead of Thyssen.

May 20, 1992: Having struck out in Cape Breton, Schreiber sends a letter to Brian Mulroney, requesting to move the Thyssen plant to Montreal.

Dec. 16, 1992: Robert Hladun, Schreiber's Alberta lawyer, attends a meeting in Switzerland that is sparked by Pelossi threatening to go public about Schreiber's international role as a middleman for German businesses and the flow of secret commission money into his accounts. Pelossi demands $3 million from Schreiber that he says he earned as Schreiber's business partner. Schreiber refuses.

June 9, 1993: Brian Mulroney steps down as party leader.

June 23, 1993: Schreiber is driven out to the prime minister's retreat at Harrington Lake to meet Mulroney.

June 25, 1993: Mulroney officially steps down as prime minister.

July 26, 1993: Schreiber transfers $500,000 into a Swiss account bearing the code name Britan from his own Swiss account, dubbed Frankfurt. Schreiber's banking documents show the Frankfurt account received Airbus commission money as well as Schreiber's 1988 fees from the Thyssen Bear Head project.

Using Schreiber's coding formula of adding a letter or letters to the names of people he had given money to, The Fifth Estate speculates in its 1999 program that Britan may stand for Brian and was set up for Mulroney. There is no evidence Mulroney knew about the account being set up.

July 27, 1993: $100,000 is withdrawn from the Britan account in Zurich. Schreiber later says he took that money — in cash — and gave it to Mulroney in an envelope at a hotel near Montreal's Mirabel airport.

Karlheinz Schreiber shown in 2000 leaving a Toronto courtroom. (Tannis Toohey/Canadian Press)

Oct. 26, 1993: The Progressive Conservatives are trounced in the federal election, losing all but two seats.

Nov. 3, 1993: Another $100,000 is withdrawn from the Britan account. Schreiber tells The Fifth Estate that on Dec. 18, 1993, that he met Mulroney at the Queen Elizabeth hotel in Montreal and gave him the money.

July 21, 1994: $50,000 is withdrawn from Britan account.

November 1994: Pelossi tells media about shell companies set up in Liechtenstein, providing proof that Airbus paid millions of dollars in secret commissions to secure the sale of its aircraft to Air Canada. He also gives proof Thyssen paid money to IAL for the Bear Head project and that MBB paid commissions in the helicopter sale to the Canadian Coast Guard.

Nov. 21, 1994: Schreiber withdraws $50,000 from Britan account. The same day he makes a notation in his appointment diary "Pierre, NY" and "Britan 50."

Dec. 8, 1994: Schreiber meets with Mulroney at New York's Pierre Hotel. Schreiber gives Mulroney the last payment, which he says was $100,000. In his appointment diary, Schreiber notes he plans to meet "Brian" at 10:30 in New York.