[Karlheinz Schreiber] has also been associated with a separate Canadian political scandal. Public hearings on Schreiber's controversial financial dealings with former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney drew to a close last week. Mulroney has denied any wrongdoing in his dealings with Schreiber, who claims the Canadian leader agreed to take money from him while still in office. Mulroney acknowledges he accepted money from Schreiber in exchange for promoting a project involving a light armoured vehicle factory on behalf of Germany's Thyssen AG, but only after leaving politics.

Schreiber, a dual German and Canadian citizen, was arrested in Canada in 1999 under a German warrant. He maintains the charges against him and his extradition from Canada are politically driven. Schreiber allegedly gave a cash donation in 1991 to the former treasurer of [Helmut Kohl]'s Christian Democratic Union party, Walther Leisler Kiep. The allegation triggered a scandal that only deepened with Kohl's 1999 admission he had personally accepted off-the-books -- and therefore illegal -- donations from supporters.