Secret Trial

Book excerpt: In his bestselling Presumed Guilty William Kaplan chronicled the corruption charges surrounding the 1988 $1.8 billion purchase by Air Canada of passenger airplanes from European giant Airbus Industries. Based on the available evidence, he concluded that former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney had been the victim of a campaign of unfounded allegation and reckless innuendo. But Kaplan discovered the story was more complicated. He sets the record straight in A Secret Trial. Not long after leaving office Brain Mulroney was paid $300,000 in cash by Karlheinz Schreiber, a German-Canadian middleman wanted in Germany for bribery and tax evasion. Mulroney vehemently denies any wrongdoing. When confronted by Kaplan about the unexplained payment, the former prime minister declared: "Anyone who says anything about [the $300,000] will be in for one fuck of a fight." At the root of Kaplan's investigation, laid bare by his determination and insight, is a secret trial held in Toronto full of stunning revelations that almost escaped public attention.