Saturday 16 June 2012

Dean Del Mastro - The Hits Keep On Coming

Dean Del Mastro is Harper's Parliamentary Secretary. He is also the point man for the Cons in dealing with the election fraud scandal. He is currently being investigated for cheating on election expenses (if found guilty he could face 5 years in jail).

Now, it has been discovered that there appears to have been some illegal contribution activity towards Del Mastro's campaign.

So far, the guilt here points to Dean's cousin, David Del Mastro, and the people who were paid to make additional contributions for David. But, there is no evidence (yet) that Dean knew of this contribution plan.
 
Excerpts from The Ottawa Citizen: Employees linked to cousin’s company each gave $1,000 to Del Mastro campaign:

The Elections Act prohibits donors colluding with others to “circumvent” the prohibition against an individual donor giving more than that amount to a candidate in an election.

Elections Canada records show that the Peterborough Conservative Electoral District Association received 12 donations in the amount of $1,000 each, dated Sept. 19, 2008, from people with links to the company, as described in the former employee’s statement.

Then, on Sept. 26, Del Mastro’s campaign received another seven donations of $1,000, also from people who were friends of Deltro employees, or friends or family, according to the former employee. Another friend of a Deltro employee donated $1,000 on Sept. 25.

Most of these donors are listed with addresses in Brampton or Toronto — nowhere near Dean Del Mastro’s Eastern Ontario riding of Peterborough.
...
 
... three donors to Del Mastro’s campaign or riding association, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, say they were asked to make $1,000 donations and were reimbursed by Deltro for the full amount plus a $50 bonus.

“It was put, ‘We need to find some people to make $1,000 donations,’” said one former Deltro employee.

Numerous sections of the Elections Act forbid donors from exceeding the individual limit on donations by concealing their donations and forbid others from helping to conceal the real source of a donation.

In a statutory declaration produced at the request of the Citizen and Postmedia, the former employee said David Del Mastro approached the then-employee and said he wanted him to make a large monetary donation to his cousin’s campaign.

The former employee signed the declaration before an Ontario Commissioner of Oaths.

The former employee was asked to make a donation of $1,000 of personal funds and was assured the company would provide reimbursement for the same amount with a “$50 bonus,” the declaration says. The donors could also claim the donation as a deduction on their tax returns.

Employees were also asked to enlist friends or family to make similar donations, the former employee said.
...
He [David Del Mastro] said it was reasonable to believe that his employees volunteered to each give $1,000 to a candidate running for election in a riding three hours away.


Amazing. 

3 comments:

Matthew Day said...

Kudos to M&M for uncovering this tidbit. The pattern of donations is a giveaway. but they went the extra yard in securing affadavits. The hard evidence will be available to any investigator with the legal authority to secure a production order on financial records for the donors. Should any of those records include $1.050 cheques received from anybody associated with Del Mastro, then the jig will be up. How many people will be willing to risk their all to protect their employer from prosecution? Don't foregt, they were all likely recipients of a tax rebate for their donations on top of the $1,050 reimbursement so the phony donors are guilty of defrauding the taxpayer. What they did was a very common occurrence, but it is still illegal, and in fact a breach of a number of different laws. The practice will likely slow down dramatically when the prosecutions start to a media fanfare.

Simon said...

hi Thor...It is amazing isn't it? I wonder if they pass the cowboy hat around at Big Oil headquarters? BTW...have you seen this poll?

http://blogs.canoe.ca/davidakin/politics/has-it-ever-been-so-good-to-be-a-new-democrat/

If you haven't yet, I thought it might make your day... ;)

Thor said...

Excellent news! Thanks Simon!