Thursday, June 06, 2013

Harper's Parade of Perps with Perks - Part 5


Updated : h/t Canadian Cynic

Welcome Con MPs Devinder Shory, James Bezan, Shelly Glover, and update! House Speaker Andrew Scheer to the growing family scandal of Steve's Parade of Perps with Perks.  

Devinder Shory, Calgary Northeast, accused of providing legal work that supported allegedly fraudulent mortgages - in his case at least five straw-buyer cases of more than $3.7 million:
Promised a payment of up to $8,000, hundreds of straw buyers, mostly new immigrants, allowed their names to be used to obtain falsely inflated mortgages on over 200 properties. When the straw buyers could not pay up, the bank would foreclose and the "masterminds" would walk away, wiring proceeds from the alleged fraud to Lebanon, India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Dubai. 
[T]he Alberta Lawyers Insurance Association (ALIA) has agreed to pay $9.2 million to BMO to settle the case on behalf of all 17 lawyers named in the suit."
April 28 2014 Update : Two Con candidates hoping to challenge Devinder Shory appear to have had their nomination papers quashed by Dimitri Soudas to protect Shory.

Two years after the election, Elections Canada is still waiting for campaign expenses compliance from Manitoba Con MPs James Bezan and law 'n order gal Shelly Glover regarding documents that put them over the top of their allowed amounts ... just like Perp with Perks veteran Peter Penashue in Labrador. Both Glover and Bezan have filed court applications to prevent their being barred from the House by EC's Marc Mayrand while Con Party lawyer Arthur Hamilton wrangles their cases.

ETA : Dear Mr. Hamilton : Clawing back campaign staffers' pay a year later in order to get Glover under the spending limit wire in what you refer to as "an honest mistake of fact" seems a bit mean. I also fail to see how having election campaign signs up in places where the traffic is poor disqualifies their existence as, you know, election campaign signs.

Belated addition of House Speaker Andrew Scheer, MP, for sitting on Mayrand's formal letter of May 24 advising him Bezan and Glover were in violation of election law and therefore ineligible to sit in the House. Scheer did not advise the House and the next day Glover filed a court challenge, followed by Bezan. 
We the public of course would not have known about any of this if the media had not dug into it - hats off to Kady and McMaher.

Very good post from Dr.Dawg on whether rule of law still exists if a sitting government can flout it without repercussion. Whether the court finds any mitigating factors in Bezan and Glover's applications or not and regardless of Scheer's eventual ruling, the Cons will claim it a victory and continue on as they like. 

Running out of perp parade room here and the month is yet young ... I'm going to have to start setting out benches at the back for the next batch to stand on.

Previous editions/perps' bios
.

10 comments:

Holly Stick said...

Then there was that secret fund in the PMO: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2013/06/06/pol-weston-conservative-fund-wright-pmo.html

Alison said...

The odd thing about that story is I think we all assumed there was a cash cache - Nigel Wright being a founding member of Conservative Fund Canada from which all monies flow and all.
And there was that odd thing Steve said - that although Nigel wrote Duffy a personal cheque, Nigel acted "in his capacity as chief of staff".

From the Conservative Party of Canada Constitution :

"Any member committing the Conservative Fund Canada or Party to unauthorized expenditures and indebtedness shall save harmless and indemnify the Party against any claim, demand, action, debt, or cause of action which may arise as a result of such unauthorized commitment."

Alison said...

"When acting within the scope of their authority, no employee, volunteer, officer, director, or member of any committee established by the Party shall be liable for any debts, actions, claims, demands, liabilities or commitments of any knid of the Party. The Party and the Conservative Fund Canada shall indemnify and hold harmless each such person against any debt, action, claim, demand, liability or commitment whatsoever."

Anonymous said...

This is awesome, but lets get some (tongueInCheek) perspective...

Their pictures should all be scaled in size to the ultimate "Bag-Man" (Brown Paper that is) The Cons Biggest hero (after the amnesiac from down south) Brian Muldoon.

BemusedLurker (Keep up the GREAT job)

Holly Stick said...

Oh boy! Perps now talking about perps with perks:

https://twitter.com/SusanDelacourt/status/344577549822726146

I wish I had heard that.

Anonymous said...

The photo gallery attached to this article is absolutely fabulous. So telling to see the common thread among these CONs.

Holly Stick said...

Oh look! Another perp! Saulie Zajdel

http://o.canada.com/2013/06/17/harper-government-denounces-corruption-following-arrest-of-former-conservative-staffer/#.Ub8wWBhlN8Y.twitter

http://muckrack.com/topic/Zajdel

Holly Stick said...

Here's a nice photo of Zajdel with Harper; and some highly symbolic brown bags

https://twitter.com/RobertJensen2/status/346629452219961345

Saskboy said...

There is at least one affidavit claiming the Fantino campaign had a second bank account.

Alison said...

Saskboy : Hey even Fantino fundraiser co-chair and Director and Chair of the Audit Committee at Italian Canadian Savings & Credit Union Sam Ciccolini appears to have acknowledged that second account, but until Fantino gets busted for it ... Also, as others have pointed out, Tony Gazebo, F-35 Airshow MacKay ...
Looking for bigger pointier busts here though - as the blind man said to the policeman - ones that even the perps' fans must accept.

Thanks, Holly, have updated.

Bemused Lurker : Too much homework! but have at least included the brown paper bags in the next one!

Blog Archive