From the agreed statement of facts in the Ed Byrne fraud and bribery conviction, the sections related to Wayne Clarke, a Provincial Conservative party organizer who figured prominently in David Cochrane’s story about the St. Barbe by-election in January 2001. [Note: bolding is added; SRBP notations are in square brackets]
Wayne Clarke
34. Two receipts were submitted by Edward Byrne as part of Constituency expenses in relation to Wayne Clark.
1) An undated expense claim for the period of May 2001 in the amount of
$25,086.86 was submitted by Edward J. Byrne. Attached to this expense claim was a handwritten generic receipt in the name of Wayne Clarke for an amount of $3,000. This generic receipt stated that it was for payment for work done in the district of Kilbride. The signature "Wayne Clarke" was on this receipt. A recap, dated June 19, 2001, shows payment of $25,086.86 to Edward Byrne as a result of this claim. [SRBP: The by-election finished on 30 Jan 01. This invoicing is at least five months later.]2) On February 11, 2003, a travel and constituency allowance claim in the
amount of $10,669.75 was submitted by Edward J. Byrne. Attached to this claim was a generic receipt for a payment of $5,000 to Wayne Clarke for a research project. The signature "Wayne Clarke" appeared on the receipt. A recap dated February 14, 2003, shows that Edward Byrne was paid $10,669.75 for this claim.35. Wayne Clarke was identified as being an individual who had been involved with the PC Party for several years. On August 1, 2007, Wayne Clarke was interviewed by the investigator and shown the first generic receipt for $3,000. He stated it was his signature on the receipt; however, he never did any work in the district of Kilbride.
Wayne Clark stated that around that time in 2001, he was assisting in running a by-election campaign for Wally Young in the district of St. Barbe. Wayne Clark stated that, at that time, he did receive a payment for his services and expenses and it would have been for approximately $3,000. [SRBP: Six months later is not necessarily “around that time” but it is interesting to note the acknowledgement of the signature and the payment for work on the by-election. Notice as well that in this instance, there is no indication of who paid Clarke. He is merely noted as saying that he was paid for his work. In other instances in the agreed statement, the auditors were able to match personal cheques from Byrne to individuals doing political work. In this instance, there is no reference to such a cheque.]
36. Upon next being shown the generic receipt in his name for the $5,000 amount for a research project, Wayne Clark stated that he had never seen that document before nor did he receive $5,000. Wayne Clark stated that he never did any research project for the PC Party at that time. Wayne Clark stated that the signature on the receipt was definitely not his. Wayne Clark did receive $1,700 from Edward Byrne. [SRBP: Note that this incident took place in early 2003 and relates to work done by Clarke for the Provincial Conservative Party at some unspecified time prior. The nature of the work is also unspecified.
37. Edward Byrne was reimbursed for the amounts as a result of these fraudulent claims. Of the $8,000 claimed, $3,000 of this was for work that was actually performed by Wayne Clark, but not as part of constituency work. [SRBP: This is a curious conclusion. The paragraph immediately preceding it confirms that in addition to $3,000, Clarke received $1,700 from Byrne in 2003. That puts the total he received as being $4,700 of the $8,000 billed. we don’t know what the second payment was for.]
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