Groupaction boss reimbursed employee $20Gs for Liberal donations 
by Romeo St. Martin

[PoliticsWatch Updated 1:25 p.m. March 17, 2005]

OTTAWA  — The sponsorship money trail leading to the Liberal Party continued to unravel at the Gomery inquiry on Thursday.

A former employee of Groupaction and Gosselin Communications testified money was funnelled from the ad firm through his own company in order to conceal the source of contributions to the Liberal Party. He also said his firm was given money to pay invoices to people he did not know, including a former aide to former public works minister Alfonso Gagliano. 

Bernard Thiboutot, who is now the director of Quebec City's CHOI-FM, testified that Jean Brault, head of Groupaction, asked him to make two $10,000 contributions to the Liberal Party of Canada. 

Thiboutot made the donations through his own registered company, Commando Communications and Marketing, and was later reimbursed $22,516.97 by Groupaction in 2000. 

"That was Mr. Brault who asked me to make political contributions of $10,000. There were fundraising activities that were held in Quebec City and Mr. Brault felt it was important the Quebec City office participate."

Brault is one of three ad executives who have been charged for their role in the scandal. Brault maintains his innocence. 

Thiboutot said he was approached by Brault after his boss Gilles-Andre Gosselin, who had sold Gosselin Communications to Groupaction in 1998, said he was hesitant about making political donations. 

Earlier this week, Gosselin testified that he felt his firm's declining sponsorship business was due to his reluctance to make donations to the Liberal Party after pressure from party fundraisers. 

Commando Communications' donations to the Liberals were listed as "professional fees" and "refund for advances" in invoices sent to Groupaction. 

Thiboutot said he had "no idea" why Brault wanted to use his company to conceal a Groupaction donation to the Liberals and Brault offered no explanation to him either. 

Commando also invoiced Brault $57,512.00 for "research and analysis" work in October of 2000.

But according to Thiboutot, he conducted no research or analysis for Brault and the money was for other purposes. 

"Mr. Brault told me that he had people to pay and he wanted them to be paid by my company because he didn't want to have any employment relationship with these people," he testified. 

"He sent me an amount of money and there was a list of people who had to send me invoices and invoices that I had to pay."

Thiboutot said Commando paid the invoices of one company and four individuals with the $57,000. Among those was Franco Iacono, who the commission was told was at one time a political aide to Alfonso Gagliano, whose department oversaw the sponsorship program at the time. 

"I did not know him and this is the first time I've seen that he worked on Mr. Gagliano's staff," Thiboutot told the inquiry. 

Thiboutot testified that Brault did not explain what work was done by the people who sent invoices to Commando.

Not all of the money was used to pay the invoices and some of it was used to make political donations, including $2,000 for a Liberal Party event for Liberal MP Denis Coderre, Thiboutot testified. 

Thiboutot continues his testimony later on Thursday afternoon and will be followed by other former employees of Gosselin Communications. 

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