Airbus Affair - RCMP Allegations

RCMP Allegations

In 1995, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) accused Mulroney and Frank Moores of accepting kickbacks from Karlheinz Schreiber on the sale of Airbus planes to the government-owned airline during Mulroney's term as Prime Minister of Canada. The allegations were made in a letter sent by the RCMP to the government of Switzerland seeking access to banking records. Schreiber had earlier raised money for Mulroney's successful 1983 bid to win the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party.

Mulroney denied the allegations, and launched a $50 million defamation suit against the Canadian government, alleging that the newly elected Liberal government of Jean Chrétien was engaging in a smear campaign against its predecessor. The government settled out of court in early 1997, and agreed to publicly apologize to Mulroney, as well as paying the former prime minister's $2.1 million legal fees.

Although there is no evidence that Mulroney accepted kickbacks while prime minister, he acknowledged in 2003 that shortly after stepping down in 1993 that he accepted $225,000 over 18 months from Schreiber, in three cash payments of $75,000 each. Mulroney was still a member of the Canadian House of Commons when one of the payments was made. Mulroney claims that this money was paid to him for consulting services he rendered to help promote a fresh pasta business, and to develop international contacts for Schreiber. Mulroney had previously not admitted accepting any commissions from Schreiber during his lawsuit against the Canadian government, and later under oath specifically denied any business dealings with him. Mulroney has not yet provided evidence of any work he performed for that money, and declared it as income to Revenue Canada only years later, when Schreiber had come under criminal investigation in Germany. Schreiber ridiculed their dealings in pasta-macaroni as nothing more than being sent a single flyer, and has stated that the three separate payments were actually $100,000 each in $1000 bills, a total of $300,000.