MONTREAL - Former federal Liberal executive Benoit Corbeil is the first political figure to plead guilty in the federal sponsorship scandal and he's suggesting he might name other figures involved in his influence-peddling plot.
Corbeil entered pleas to fraud and influence peddling during an appearance Wednesday morning at the Montreal courthouse. A third charge of conspiracy was stayed.
The influence peddling happened while Corbeil was a Liberal organizer in 1997 and he engaged in fraud while serving as director of the Liberal party's Quebec wing in 2000.
Blowing the whistle?
A judge ordered a pre-sentencing report for early September. The Crown wants Corbeil to do jail time but Corbeil's lawyer says he should stay out of jail because he never made a penny from the fraudulent transactions.
However, Corbeil says he will reveal who profited from the scam, suggesting more names will come out in connection with the scandal that helped to bring down Paul Martin's minority Liberal government in 2006.
Two separate scams
In 1997, Corbeil took a $50,000 Liberal donation from a businessman south of Montreal on a promise to clear up red tape in a complicated land deal. The businessman had wanted to expand a quarry in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu.
The fraud charge stems from Corbeil signing for Liberal bills that he knew were fake and then funneling $117,000 to companies owned by the late Joe Morselli, a onetime Liberal organizer. Corbeil was arrested and charged in April of last year.
A public inquiry found the sponsorship program gave $150 million to Liberal-friendly ad agencies in Quebec for little or no work while the Grits were in power.
Several guilty pleas
Several ad executives at the centre of the scandal have already pleaded guilty including Groupaction president Jean Brault, who conspired with the head of the sponsorship program to inflate contracts and pocket the difference.
The bureaucrat, Chuck Guite, has also pleaded guilty in the case.
Brault also blew the lid off of a wider conspiracy, admitting to skimming money off the top of the federal program to funnel to the Liberal party's Quebec wing in exchange for sponsorship contracts.
