OTTAWA — A government forensic accountant contracted by the Mounties is laying out the money trail surrounding a famous $90,000 payment to Mike Duffy from the prime minister’s former chief of staff Nigel Wright.
Mark Grenon says Wright transferred money from his account in March 2013 to the Ottawa law firm Nelligan O’Brien Payne that subsequently went into Duffy’s bank account. Grenon says $90,172.24 was then paid to the Receiver General of Canada.
Duffy has pleaded not guilty to 31 charges include fraud, bribery and breach of trust. The single bribery charge relates to the $90,000 payment.
Wright was also investigated by the RCMP but no charges were laid. He maintained he gave the senator the money to ensure Canadian taxpayers were not on the hook for Duffy’s expense claims.
Grenon also analyzed other aspects of Duffy’s financial situation, and says the senator filed federal and provincial taxes as an Ontario resident up until 2013, the year the expense scandal first erupted.
Ontario Justice Charles Vaillancourt has yet to determine whether Grenon’s testimony will be entered as fact for the purposes the trial.