Karlheinz Schreiber (born 25 March 1934) is a German and Canadian citizen, an industrialist, lobbyist, fundraiser, arms dealer, businessman, and convicted criminal. He has been in the news regarding his alleged role in the 1999 CDU contributions scandal in Germany, which damaged the political legacy of former Chancellor of Germany Helmut Kohl and involves the former Federal Minister of Finance of Germany Wolfgang Schäuble as well as the Airbus affair in Canada, which was linked through allegation to former prime minister of Canada Brian Mulroney. He was extradited to Germany on 2 August 2009, and convicted of tax evasion.
Early life and career Schreiber was born in Petersdorf, Thuringia. His family was working class and belonged to an evangelical Lutheran community. His mother was a cook and his father worked in upholstery.
Schreiber became a lobbyist and deal maker. He was a fund raiser for the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU) in West Germany before and during Helmut Kohl's chancellorship. Schreiber stated in his House of Commons of Canada testimony on 29 November 2007 that he had been a lay judge, for nine years in Germany.
In 1991, Schreiber donated DM 1 million to the CDU, the party of the then Chancellor of Germany Helmut Kohl. These donations were crucial in the party financing scandal that erupted in 1999 that damaged Kohl's political legacy."German sleaze: The story so far" By the BBC, 17 February 2000
Role in Canada Schreiber set up trust accounts in Alberta for wealthy Germans in the early 1980s; among the people he served was Franz Josef Strauss, who had been premier of Bavaria.On The Take, by Stevie Cameron, 1994 Strauss became chairman of Airbus Industries in the 1980s, and saw Air Canada award a large contract of C$1.8 billion for new planes to Airbus, winning over the bid from Boeing (theretofore the supplier for Air Canada), shortly before his death in 1988.On The Take, by Stevie Cameron, 1994
The National Post reported on 11 December 2007, that in 1979 Alberta premier Peter Lougheed had rejected any business contact with Schreiber, according to Lee Richardson, who was then an aide to Lougheed and later a federal Member of Parliament from 2004 until 2012.
Schreiber obtained his Canadian citizenship in 1982 while retaining his (West) German citizenship. He was based in Calgary during his early years in Canada, but moved his main liaison activities to Montreal in the early 1980s.
Schreiber was a key figure in Canada's Airbus affair, in which he allegedly arranged secret commissions to be paid to Brian Mulroney and lobbyist Frank Moores in exchange for then Crown corporation Air Canada's purchase of Airbus jets. There has never been any evidence produced to substantiate this allegation, and both Schreiber and Mulroney deny it.
Mulroney sued the government of Canada for libel, and in early 1997 received a $2.1 million (CDN) settlement and an apology. During an examination under oath, Mulroney claimed that he hardly knew Schreiber, and had had no business dealings with him.
Schreiber allegedly made payments of $300,000 in cash, in three instalments, to Brian Mulroney beginning one month after Mulroney had stepped down as Prime Minister but while Mulroney was still a sitting member of Parliament. Schreiber had previously been a fundraiser in Mulroney's successful campaign to win the 1983 Progressive Conservative leadership convention. Mulroney has since admitted to receiving $225,000 from Schreiber, in cash, and not reporting this in his income tax returns until eight years later, subsequent to Schreiber's indictment in Germany for bribery, tax evasion and fraud and extradition order from Canada.
In October 2004, then Canadian Justice Minister Irwin Cotler ordered Schreiber to surrender himself to German authorities. Schreiber, however, remained in Canada exhausting his appeals, until he was finally extradited to Germany on 2 August 2009.
Supreme Court orders extradition On 1 February 2007, the Supreme Court of Canada accepted the extradition to his native Germany. On 10 May 2007, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that extradition was appropriate as it is "for the German courts to deal with the applicant's apprehension of prejudgement and to fashion the appropriate remedy, if one is warranted."Karlheinz Schreiber loses another appeal By Canadian Press. Toronto Star. 10 May 2007
On 24 March 2007, he filed suit in the Ontario Superior Court against Brian Mulroney for services not rendered. He alleged that he had made payments to Mulroney in 1993 and 1994 totalling $300,000 in cash in equal instalments of $100,000; that Mulroney had agreed to aid in the building of a factory to make light armoured vehicles in Quebec; and that Mulroney never held up his end of the bargain.
In October 2007, Schreiber had apparently exhausted all avenues of legal appeal regarding his extradition to Germany and was set to be extradited to face charges. However, his lawyers, Edward Greenspan and Gary Botting, made a last-ditch motion using a rarely used provision, which granted him another delay.
Public inquiry On 31 October 2007, the CBC Television show The Fifth Estate broadcast a one-hour program on the Schreiber – Mulroney situation. The program was titled Brian Mulroney: The Unauthorized Chapter. The same day the Globe and Mail published a feature article on the relationship between Karlheinz Schreiber and Brian Mulroney; the stories revealed, for the first time, that Brian Mulroney had made a voluntary disclosure to Revenue Canada years after he had received envelopes of cash from Karlheinz Schreiber. The Globe and Mail and CBC reporters, Greg McArthur and Harvey Cashore, had teamed up to conduct research together, each organization maintaining editorial control over their own stories.
Then, in the week of 5 November 2007, Schreiber, assisted by his lawyer Richard Anka, filed an affidavit in Ontario Superior Court, related to his suit against Brian Mulroney filed in March; it contained several explosive allegations against Mulroney. Among Schreiber's claims was that he had met with Mulroney to discuss business a few days before the then-prime minister stepped down in June 1993, contradicting Mulroney's claim made during his libel suit. Schreiber also claimed that he had written a letter to current Prime Minister Stephen Harper on his extradition situation, and that he had asked Mulroney to intercede with Harper on this matter when Mulroney met with Harper in 2006.The Globe and Mail, 9 November 2007
Coverage by The Globe and Mail newspaper on 9 November led Prime Minister Stephen Harper to announce later that day that he would name a special independent adviser in the days ahead, to investigate Schreiber's statements; Mulroney promised his full cooperation. Harper also announced that federal Conservative caucus members were to have nothing to do with Mulroney while the investigative process unfolded, and denied any personal dealings with Schreiber. The Globe and Mail, which had published a large front-page picture on 9 November 2007 showing Mulroney meeting with Schreiber in the prime minister's office (accompanied by two of Mulroney's senior staff members), continued its extensive coverage on 10 November, and other Canadian media outlets also took up the story.
On 13 November 2007, after Mulroney requested a public inquiry,Mulroney asks for public inquiry into allegations Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 12 November 2007. Prime Minister Harper announced that a full public inquiry would take place.
The day after, on 14 November 2007, a report on CBC.ca quoted expert opinion saying that Schreiber's potential extradition to Germany could be delayed further by the timing of the public inquiry. On the same day, Prime Minister Harper announced that David Lloyd Johnston, president of the University of Waterloo, would set the terms of the public inquiry, and would report to the Prime Minister by 11 January 2008. Also on 14 November, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police announced that they would begin a review of these matters; the RCMP had originally investigated the situation starting in the late 1980s.
On 15 November 2007, Schreiber lost his extradition appeal. Crown lawyers said that Justice Minister Rob Nicholson would wait at least 15 days before extraditing Schreiber to Germany.Ottawa willing to grant Schreiber 15-day delay in extradition: Crown Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 15 November 2007. However, Schreiber has vowed that he would not cooperate with the public inquiry if he was extradited.Schreiber must stay in Canada for inquiry: opposition MPs Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 16 November 2007. Minister of Public Safety Stockwell Day stated on 16 November that Schreiber would have to cooperate with the inquiry, regardless of circumstances, and Bavarian prosecutors stated they would abide by the Canadian government's decisions on Schreiber's extradition.
On 21 November 2007, The Globe and Mail reported that Mulroney spokesman Luc Lavoie stated Mulroney was broke in late August 1993, when he accepted the first $100,000 cash payment from Schreiber, while still a member of the House of Commons of Canada.
On 21 November 2007, legal pundits interviewed on various Canadian network television news channels speculated that Schreiber would most likely be extradited during a clandestine "middle-of-the-night" series of flights from Toronto Island Airport, through the United States, and on to Germany, and that it would most likely happen within hours of a Supreme Court of Canada announcement that it will not hear Schreiber's final appeal.
Commons Ethics Committee summons Schreiber
On 21 November 2007, the website ctv.ca reported that the House of Commons of Canada Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics had struck a deal to hear testimony from Schreiber as soon as possible, possibly in advance of any possible extradition. As would be the case on any Parliamentary Committee when a minority government is in power, Opposition party members outnumbered the governing party members on this committee; perhaps more important, this committee had elected an opposition member, Paul Szabo, as its chairperson.
On 23 November 2007, The Globe and Mail reported that the Commons Ethics Committee wanted to summon Schreiber to testify before it on 27 and 29 November. For this to occur, Schreiber would have to be released from jail in Toronto and travel to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada's capital. The government refused to permit the release. Schreiber stated that if he testified, he wanted bail, to wear a business suit and not his prison jumpsuit, and would like time to study his files which were stored at his house in Ottawa. Schreiber had also stated that the German government may have obtained information from his Swiss bank accounts through Swiss authorities, without following proper procedures, and planned to use this as grounds for appealing his extradition. The plan was that Brian Mulroney would then appear before the Ethics Committee in the week following Schreiber's testimony.