Saturday, November 02, 2013

"Ms Entitlements, you ignored the warnings so now you must pay the price!

RCMP allege Senator Pamela Wallin committed fraud

The RCMP files court documents Friday alleging Senator Pamela Wallin committed breach of trust and fraud in filing expense claims

Bruce Champion-Smith Parliament Hill
Les Whittington, Ottawa Bureau Reporter
Senator Pamela Wallin arrives at the Senate on Thrusday, as her colleagues debated a motion to suspend her and two other senators without pay. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

Friday, November 1, 2013

OTTAWA - Senator Pamela Wallin, once a high-profile star of Stephen Harper's Conservatives, committed fraud and breach of trust by filing improper expense claims, the Mounties allege in court documents Friday.

The Mounties are alleging Wallin defrauded the government and have cast a wide-ranging evidence net, requesting details of more than three years of her travel and living expenses, Senate expense claims and other records.

The allegations, which Wallin's lawyer denies, spell more bad news for the former broadcaster and diplomat who could be suspended from the Senate and stripped of her pay next week for her alleged misspending.

The RCMP allegations are contained in documents seeking judicial orders for Senate officials and auditors to provide police with expense-related information dating back to January 2009, when Wallin was appointed to the Senate by the prime minister.

The RCMP allege Wallin, who now sits as an Independent senator, made "inappropriate expense claims."

"I believe that there are reasonable grounds to believe that Senator Wallin committed the offences of fraud and breach of trust contrary to the Criminal Code," RCMP Constable Michael Johnson writes in the court document.

The allegations, which have not been proven in court, revolve around almost $140,000 in travel expenses that the Senate has said Wallin improperly claimed.

The allegedly improper claims were made between her appointment in 2009 and September 30, 2012. Wallin has since paid beck the money.

Terrence O'Sullivan, Wallin's lawyer, defended the senator in the face of new allegations.

"We believe that an objective review of all the evidence will demonstrate that there was no attempt to defraud the people of Canada," O'Sullivan said in an interview.

Wallin herself said last week that she was the victim of a political vendetta because she had become a "liability" for Harper and his party. She says her travel records dating from 2009 are being examined unfairly on the basis of expense account rules adopted in mid-2012.

The documents say Wallin's expense claims had raised frequent red flags among Senate finance staff, prompting warnings from bureaucrats and Senator Marjory LeBreton , the top Conservative senator at the time.

In September 2009, Senate Clerk Gary O'Brien and Nicole Proulx, the Senate's Director of Finance, spoke with Wallin about her travel claims for Toronto trips - even though her declared primary residence was Saskatchewan. The two officials told Wallin that business conducted in Toronto - and claimed for - had to comply with Senate policy.

In January 2012, O'Brien and Proulx spoke with Wallin "more seriously about the travel irregularities," the document says.

These included a "high percentage" of claims made without a specific purpose, frequent stopovers in Toronto, where she owned a condo, and concerns about the high cost of car services, the document states.

On several occasions, Senate finance staff rejected expense claims for car service in 2010, but Wallin took it to the Senate's internal economy committee which reversed the decision and paid the claim.

The concerns continued, prompting Wallin's former executive assistant in August 2012 to write Conservative Senator Caroly Stewart-Olsen, at the time a member of the internal economy committee, about "irregular" expense claims.

That prompted the finance department to do a comprehensive review of Wallin's claims especially those related to Toronto stopovers.

The matter came to a head in October 2012, when LeBreton, then the government leader in the Senate, spoke to Wallin about "serious problems with expense claims," the RCMP document says.

LeBreton told investigators that she thinks Wallin has a "sense of entitlement" but has not committed a crime and "does not feel Senator Wallin tried to scam the system."

The Mounties cited a previously released audit by the firm Deloitte that found Wallin violated Senate rules by expensing travel to partisan political events, including a "Here for Canada" rally for the prime minister during the 2011 election campaign.

Deloitte said that Wallin's Toronto stopovers during her trips to and from Wadena, Saskatchewan meant an extra $31,025 in incremental costs to taxpayers, the RCMP notes.

The RCMP document says Wallin used her Toronto condo as her primary residence to attend non-Senate related board meetings and other functions "of which she has submitted fraudulent expense claims and was subsequently reimbursed by the Senate."

The Deloitte report also uncovered more than 500 changes made to Wallin's electronic calendar and "many discrepancies and inconsistencies therein," the court document says.

Johnson said these discrepancies and Wallin's handwritten calendars warrant further investigation.

To assist with their investigation, the Mounties are seeking a wide range of documents from Deloitte and the Senate, including Wallin's monthly calendars, travel expense claims, American Express and VISA credit card bills.

"I believe that the documents and/or data sought will afford evidence of named offences," Johnson said.

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