Duffy friend paid $65K for no work, RCMP say
New accusation made in Ottawa court document
OTTAWA • Senator Mike Duffy billed the Senate for $65,000 to pay a friend who provided “no tangible work” in return, even after Senate finance officials raised concerns, the RCMP allege. Now the police want to know where the money went.
The RCMP lay out the new accusations against Mr. Duffy in a document filed in an Ottawa court Tuesday, which seeks the banking information of Gerald Donohue. Investigators say he is a longtime friend of the senator’s who told the RCMP he did little if no work in exchange for the cash.
The new allegations stem from an investigation of Mr. Duffy’s travel and housing expenses and the $90,000 the prime minister’s former chief of staff gave the former Conservative senator to repay the questioned expense claims.
The police probe has now been expanded to include his office spending. The RCMP say he paid about $65,000 over four years to Mr. Donohue — including a payment Mr. Duffy allegedly tried to back-date 11 months — “for little or no apparent work.”
Among the work Mr. Donohue, a former TV technician, was supposed to have performed was speech-writing, work on Mr. Duffy’s website, help on a Canadian heritage project and a project about Canada’s aging population. Mr. Donohue told investigators he didn’t work on Mr. Duffy’s website, did little if any speech-writing or project work, but would often watch the news and tell Mr. Duffy what he had seen, the RCMP allege.
When Senate officials raised concerns about the vagaries of Mr. Donohue’s contracts, Mr. Duffy’s office wrote a new job description with more details. Police have interviewed Mr. Donohue and he “acknowledged that he produced no tangible work product for Duffy,” Cpl. Greg Horton, the lead investigator, writes.
“A public official is expected to spend taxpayers’ money in a transparent and responsible manner. Based on the facts ... I believe that Senator Duffy, in his role as Canadian senator, breached the standard of responsibility and conduct demanded and expected of him as a person in a position of public trust,” Cpl. Horton writes. “He used his office for a dishonest purpose, other than the public good. In doing so, he committed breach of trust and fraud.”
Nowhere in the document does it say why Mr. Donohue took the money if he in fact did nothing in exchange, but Cpl. Horton writes that all the payments from the Senate were by cheque, and that Mr. Donohue “never funnelled any of the money back to Duffy.” Mr. Donohoue could not immediately be reached for comment.
The RCMP allege the money, handed out in lumpsum payments totalling more than $10,000 at a time, went to Mr. Donohue’s media company. His wife was its president and his son a director. The company had no employees, although Mr. Duffy wrote in one memo to Senate administration that he needed to increase the value of Mr. Donohue’s contract because the consultant had hired additional staff.
Mr. Donohue told investigators he didn’t personally receive any of the money. He said he wasn’t allowed to because he was receiving disability payments.
The question for the RCMP now is: Where did the money go? To answer that, Cpl. Horton argues, the RCMP require account information connected to Mr. Donohue’s company, Maple Ridge Media.
In an email Tuesday, Mr. Duffy said, “It would be inappropriate for me to comment while these matters are being examined by the RCMP.”
The RCMP document also makes reference to a Feb. 20 email between Mr. Duffy and Nigel Wright, then Stephen Harper’s chief of staff, in which Mr. Duffy allegedly talks about altering his Senate electronic calendar. According to the document, Mr. Duffy wrote in the email that he “copied and redacted my 4 years of diaries; added a summary of my days in PEI, and pics of the cottage under construction etc. and sent it to Nigel by Purolator.”
The reference to an email dated Feb. 20 has been central to the entire Duffy affair. There have been reports of an email sent or received by Mr. Duffy on that date allegedly explaining how Mr. Wright would give Mr. Duffy about $90,000 to cover the repayment of improper housing expenses. Mr. Wight has said he personally gave Mr. Duffy that amount. Mr. Wright resigned after the payment came to light.
None of the allegations has been tested in court nor have any charges been laid.