Chronology

For a chronology of the Kohl slush fund affair, click here.

1930s

1934: March 25, 1934 Karlheinz Schreiber born in Petersdorf in north-eastern Germany.

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1950s

1950s: Moves to Kaufering, a small town near Munich in Bavaria; gets into the road marking business.

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1960s

1965: Sets up Kensington Anstalt, a Liechtenstein shell company. This becomes parent company for most of his other shell companies.

1969: Meets Swiss accountant Giorgio Pelossi who becomes his accountant and money manager. With Pelossi's help, Schreiber sets up a series of companies in Liechtenstein and elsewhere, including Canada.

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1970s

1970: Airbus Industrie established by Germany, France, England and Spain; Bavarian premier Franz Josef Strauss is first chairman.

1970s: Schreiber becomes very close to Strauss and to his family and a trusted middleman in a number of Strauss family business deals.

1974: Schreiber, Pelossi and several Bavarian friends make first trip to Alberta to look for business opportunities. The Strauss family has substantial real estate holdings in Canada, especially in Alberta. Schreiber incorporates companies in Alberta on his own behalf and for other German investors, including the Strausses.

1976: Pelossi takes over administration of Schreiber's parent company; both men move to Calgary; Schreiber cultivates a number of provincial Tory cabinet ministers and sets up businesses with them. Commutes back and forth to his home in Germany.

1977: S.A. Miliar, a company set up by Schreiber and Pelossi, enters into an agreement with Airbus to try to sell planes to Pacific Western Airlines - no luck.

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1980s

1981: Schreiber meets Montreal lawyer Michel Cogger who does work for Strauss family in Montreal; Cogger introduces him to other Tories who are working for Brian Mulroney's bid to lead the federal Conservative Party, including Frank Moores, former premier of Newhis partners fall under investigation in big land annexation scandal in Edmonton.

1982: Schreiber's Alberta investors lose a fortune in land deals gone bad; he is almost broke. He spends less time in Alberta Alberta and more in Montreal where he goes into business deals with Cogger and others in that circle.

1983: Schreiber explores business deals in Costa Rica.

1984: Schreiber sets up two new shell companies: ATG, a Panamanian shell and IAL (International Aircraft Leasing), a Liechtenstein shell, and agrees to represent new clients in Ottawa. The Conservatives come to power under Brian Mulroney. Frank Moores sets the Ottawa lobbying firm, GCI, with Halifax lawyer Gerry Doucet - whose brother, Fred, is Mulroney's senior political advisor.

1985: With Schreiber's help, Moores becomes lobbyist for various German companies including Thyssen and Messerschmidt Bolkow Blohm (to sell helicopters to the Canadian Coast Guard). He joins Air Canada board in March but leaves six months later when it is revealed he is an Airbus lobbyist. Airbus enters into an agreement with International Aircraft leasing for assistance with the sale of aircraft to Canada.

1986: Schreiber, Moores and Pelossi open new bank accounts in Zurich. Schreiber begins aggressive lobby for Thyssen who want to build a tank plant in Nova Scotia; it is bitterly opposed by Canada's Jewish community who know Thyssen's plan is to sell tanks to Middle East governments hostile to Israel.

1987: Schreiber lobbies Nova Scotia politicians for support of the Thyssen deal in Cape Breton. Holger Pfahls becomes deputy minister of defence in Germany.

1988: Airbus wins the Air Canada contract: 34 aircraft at a price of $1.8-billion. The federal government announces the Thyssen plant will go ahead in N.S. Schreiber's patron, Franz Josef Strauss, dies. Mulroney wins a second majority election. The FBI and RCMP begin secret investigations into the Airbus deal.

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1990s

1990: Schreiber works on a Thyssen contract to sell tanks to the Saudis;Gulf War erupts and several important top German politicians and bureaucrats get involved in the Thyssen deal,including Holger Pfahls.

1991: Schreiber continues lobbying for a Thyssen plant in Nova Scotia despite hostility from the Canadian military and senior bureaucrats. Chancellor Helmut Kohl of Germany approves tank sales to the Saudis; the deal is worth $446-million and half the money goes to secret commissions. Schreiber takes 1-million German marks in cash to a parking lot meeting with Liesler Kiep, the treasurer of Kohl's party, and Frankfurt tax accountant, Horst Weyrauch. Schreiber says the money was a cash donation to the CDU. Giorgio Pelossi and Schreiber have a major falling-out and end their relationship.

1992: Schreiber still lobbying hard for Thyssen deal in Cape Breton.

1993: Mulroney leaves office; Liberals win fall election. Schreiber tries to get Thyssen plant deal moved to Montreal with help from Marc Lalonde.

1994: Schreiber is living in Kaufering, a rich man thanks to his involvement in four deals: Thyssen tanks sold to Saudi Arabia, payment for his work on a Thyssen plant in Nova Scotia (which never happened), the Airbus sale to Air Canada, and the Canadian government's purchase of Messerschmidt helicopters. In the fall Germany is rocked by the "Amigo" scandals: several Strauss family friends are revealed to have taken bribes and benefits during his time as premier of Bavaria. They become known in Europe as the "Amigos" and their world as Amigoland."

1995: After news stories break on the fifth estate and in Der Spiegel on Schreiber's work for Airbus in Canada, the RCMP and German tax prosecutors begin investigations. The Germans raid Schreiber's house in Kaufering and collect important records and documents. Schreiber leaves Germany permanently. In Canada the story breaks that the Mounties have asked Switzerland for help in their investigations and that Mulroney has been named in their request; Mulroney sues the RCMP and the federal government. Schreiber flees Germany for his weekend home in Switzerland and begins massive legal efforts to stop the Mounties from seizing his Swiss bank records.

1996: German prosecutors raid other prominent Germans including Pfahls and Kiep as well as Thyssen officials.

1997: The Canadian government settles the lawsuit with Mulroney, apologizes for wording in their letter to the Swiss and pays his legal fees but refuses to drop his name from the request to Switzerland or to stop the investigation. German prosecutors issue an arrest warrant for Schreiber; he is wanted for questioning on suspicion of tax evasion, bribery and accessory to fraud. His work for the BND, the German secret police, in Costa Rica becomes known.

1998: The Supreme Court of Canada rules against Schreiber in his long legal battle to protect his Swiss bank records from the RCMP.

1999: In January, 1999 German prosecutors have received Schreiber's banking records from Switzerland and by October, 1999 they have interviewed 51 witnesses,conducted 30 bank searches and 33 searches at homes and offices. They have 10,000 pages of evidence. They issue arrest warrants for Pfahls, Kiep and Thyssen executives. Pfahls, in Taiwan, disappears. In May, Schreiber flees Switzerland for Canada with the aid of Elmer MacKay who puts him up at his home in Nova Scotia. In July Schreiber moves to Toronto under an assumed name, Mr. Herman. On August 31, the RCMP arrests him on a German warrant but he is granted bail, secured by MacKay, Lalonde and others. He hires Eddie Greenspan to fight his extradition back to Germany. In late 1999, the secret funding scandals he ignited begin to break in Germany and Kohl, CDU party chairman for 25 years and chancellor from 1983 to 1998, admits he accepted secret donations.

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2000s

2000: In January, Helmut Kohl is forced to resign; so is his successor, Wolfgang Schauble. Just as a parliamentary enquiry into the fundraising scandal begins, one senior party official kills himself. Soon it is discovered that sensitive political files on the affair have disappeared.

In February the Mounties finally obtain Schreiber's banking records from the Swiss. The RCMP investigation heats up but Schreiber remains defiant, threatening German politicians with new revelations and fighting extradition from Canada with every legal means and constitutional challenge at his disposal.

By fall he and two Thyssen executives have been ordered to stand trial in Germany; Schreiber is charged with bribery and tax evasion. He will likely be tried in absentia in 2001 if he cannot be extradited. While Eddie Greenspan invokes charter rights and other maneuvers to prevent this from happening, it is reported in Germany that Schreiber’s lawyers there are looking for ways to allow him to testify there in return for no prison time.