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.
