XPost: can.politics, ont.politics, bc.politics   
   XPost: ab.politics   
   From: ConsRCons@govt.cda   
      
   CBC News - Aug 8, 2013   
      
      
   RCMP seeks Duffy's personal banking, credit card records   
      
      
   The RCMP is seeking personal bank account and credit card records for   
   Senator Mike Duffy as part of its investigation into his expense claims,   
   according to new court documents.   
      
   The lead investigator looking into Duffy's claims filed the documents in   
   an Ottawa court Thursday asking that CIBC and RBC banks hand over the   
   information.   
      
   Cpl. Greg Horton believes the Prince Edward Island senator committed   
   breach of trust by filing inappropriate travel and housing expense   
   claims. Duffy has not been charged with any crime.   
      
   In addition to statements for his personal credit cards and bank   
   accounts, the RCMP wants to see Duffy's mortgage application from 2010   
   and a list of all address changes in relation to any account solely or   
   jointly in Duffy's name related to either his Ottawa home or the one in   
   P.E.I.   
      
   Horton filed a similar application to the court in June that asked the   
   Senate to hand over housing declarations, travel expense claims,   
   cellphone bills, Senate credit card statements, and records of expenses   
   paid to and by Duffy.   
      
   Those documents are currently being reviewed by Horton's team and the   
   court document obtained Thursday by CBC News also said that the cheque   
   that Nigel Wright, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's former chief of   
   staff, wrote to cover Duffy's expenses is still under investigation.   
      
   "Investigators on my team are currently reviewing hundreds of pages of   
   documents provided by Mr. Wright," the document said. Wright resigned as   
   Harper's chief of staff after the secret payment was revealed in the media.   
      
   The RCMP started looking at Duffy's expenses in March while an external   
   audit by Deloitte was underway, at the request of the Senate. The firm   
   was also asked to look at the residency expense claims made by senators   
   Patrick Brazeau and Mac Harb and those reports were done in May. An   
   audit on senator Pam Wallin is expected to be released next week.   
      
   Duffy said he would pay $90,000 back even before the audit was finished   
   and there were allegations that the Senate went easy on Duffy in its   
   report on the audit as a result. But it was Wright's pocket that the   
   money came out of, not Duffy's, and now that payment is part of the   
   RCMP's investigation.   
      
   Harb has paid back $51,000 but under protest and is fighting the Senate   
   in court.  Brazeau is refusing to pay any money back and his salary is   
   being garnished.   
      
   Senators can be reimbursed by the government for travel between their   
   home province and Ottawa and up to $22,000 per year can be claimed for   
   housing in Ottawa, if they declare their primary residence is more than   
   100 kilometres outside the capital.   
   Pattern of 'fraudulent' claims   
      
   Duffy, a former journalist, has had a home in Ottawa since 1971 and has   
   a cottage in Prince Edward Island, the province he was appointed to   
   represent by Harper in December 2008. He claims the home in P.E.I. as   
   his primary residence and collects the housing allowance.   
      
   The court documents indicate some of the reasons why the RCMP doesn't   
   believe Duffy's primary residence is in P.E.I.  His driver's licence   
   history, for example, consistently lists Ottawa as his home.  He only   
   got a P.E.I. licence in 2009.   
      
   In December, around the same time that all senators were asked to   
   provide copies of their health card and driver's licences to the Senate   
   to prove their residency Duffy called the office of P.E.I's health   
   minister and asked for a health card application to be expedited, and   
   asked that the request be confidential, according to the RCMP.   
   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^   
      
   The court document filed Thursday also notes that Duffy's banking   
   address was changed from an Ontario address to a Cavendish address on   
   Dec. 10, 2012, just days after      <<====   
   the Senate said it was looking into senators' residency declarations.   
      
   The RCMP is also digging into per diem claims that Duffy made and   
   believes some were "fraudulent" and amount to breach of trust. Some per   
   diems were claimed on days when Duffy was in Florida   
          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^   
   (Duffy has said those were claimed in error), others while he was in   
   P.E.I., not in Ottawa on Senate business, and others were claimed while   
   he was campaigning in the 2011 election.   
      
   Horton notes that Mark Grenon, a chartered accountant who is a certified   
   fraud examiner, has been seconded from public works to the RCMP. It was   
   through his examination of Duffy's expenses that he came across the   
   personal credit cards that Duffy used to pay Senate expenses.   
      
   He has a Senate-issued credit card but used his personal ones to rent   
   cars and hotel rooms and buy train and airline tickets. He would then   
   submit expense claims to be reimbursed.   
      
   Some of Duffy's expense claims were handwritten, "often with several   
   amendments and corrections," the court document said.   
      
   "I believe that Senator Duffy has demonstrated a pattern of filing   
   fraudulent expense claims," Horton wrote. "He maintains that his primary   
   residence is in P.E.I. so that he can collect housing and travel   
   allowances from the Senate, however uses his Ottawa residence as his   
   primary residence when convenient, such as when dealing with OHIP so   
   that he can obtain medical coverage in Ontario."   
      
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