This is excerpted from Canada.com Mulroney is also chair of the board of Quebecor World. His spokesperson Luc Lavoie who just resigned is also a vice-president of Quebecor. He claims that he will not have time to be his spokesman during the Schreiber inquiry. No doubt it is a full time job to try to shield Mulroney from all the foul smelling projectiles aimed at tarnishing his pristine reputation!
Schreiber is suing Mulroney for return of the money, claiming Mulroney did no work for it.
Mulroney says the money was a retainer for representing Schreiber on a venture to market pasta machines and on a project to construct a military vehicle plant in Montreal. The factory was never built.
When Mulroney left office, he had a $33,500 annual government pension.
But insiders who knew him said he knew he would get numerous lucrative jobs in the private sector. While in office, "he made sure he cultivated massive business relationships," one source said.
He jumped right into a position at the law firm Ogilvy Renault. His earnings there are secret, even from his fellow partners. But he is considered a major rainmaker for the firm, which would put his earnings at about $1 million.
Also confidential is how much of his income derives from fees he earns sitting on various corporate boards.
Within a short time of leaving office, he did find himself on nine boards, for which he was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars. These included Horsham Corp., which at the time was a large shareholder in Barrick Gold, Trizec and Clark Oil, Barrick Gold and Archer Daniels Midland, one of the world's largest food processors.
Archer Daniels pays Mulroney $200,000 a year in cash and options. He now holds 85,192 shares in the company, valued at about $3 million U.S.
In 1994, Horsham paid him $120,000 for "advisory services."
Also in 1994, Barrick Gold Corp. paid him $141,000 for "advisory services and reimbursement of expenses."
Barrick also gave him 250,000 stock options in November 1993, plus another 250,000 in September 1994.
Mulroney has earned millions of dollars exercising his stock options. In 1999, for example, he earned $756,750, and in 2000 he earned another $1.48 million in this way. By the end of 2006, he owned 425,000 Barrick options, valued at $3.7 million U.S.
In 1994, he earned $75,000 U.S. as a board member of the Freedom Forum in Washington, D.C.
Mulroney was also earning as much as $45,000 per speaking engagement.
In addition, Mulroney in 1993 took seats on boards of Petrofina SA of Belgium, which was partially owned by Power Corp., Pro-Agro of Venezuela, the China International Trust and investment Corp., Chemical Bank of New York and Power Corp. International.
Mulroney was also on the advisory board of Bombardier Aerospace, where he had been hired to help market the company's business jets.
During that time, Mulroney was spending about $1 million renovating his home at 47 Forden Cres. in Westmount, which he had purchased in 1993 for $1.68 million with a mortgage of $1.26 million. Mortgage payments would have cost him about $10,000 a month.
He was also sending his oldest son to Duke University in North Carolina, his daughter Caroline to Harvard University in Massachusetts and his two other sons to private schools.
There was never a clear public record of how much money Mulroney had when he left office. Senator David Angus was quoted at the time saying Mulroney was "a millionaire."
Angus did not return phone calls for this article.
Others said Mulroney had spent most of his settlement with his former company, the Iron Ore Co. of Canada, where he served as president before becoming prime minister.
According to Stevie Cameron's book On the Take, industry leaders raised about $4 million for Mulroney to help finance the purchase and renovations of his Westmount home. Mulroney has never denied this.
Mulroney's secretary said the former PM was out of town and unavailable for comment.
Whatever the case, Mulroney knew he was stepping into big money when he stepped out of 24 Sussex Drive. He clearly had big expenses ahead - but he also had great prospects.
wmarsden@thegazette.canwest.com
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