Senate Expenses Patrick Brazeau, Mac Hab To Be Charged By RCMP

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[URL]http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/senate-expenses-patrick-brazeau-mac-harb-to-be-charged-by-rcmp-1.2522431[/URL]


Suspended Senator Patrick Brazeau and retired senator Mac Harb will be formally charged today by the RCMP with fraud and breach of trust for their alleged roles in the Senate expenses scandal, CBC News has learned.
The RCMP are expected to announce the charges at a news conference at about 11:10 am ET Tuesday.
The Mounties allege Brazeau and Harb defrauded taxpayers by claiming travel and living expenses to which they were not entitled.
[LIST]
[*][URL="http://www.cbc.ca/news2/interactives/senate-expense-who/"][B][COLOR=#0066cc]Who's who in the Senate expenses scandal[/COLOR][/B][/URL]
[/LIST]Brazeau was suspended from the Senate in October along with onetime fellow Conservative Senators Mike Duffy and Pamela Wallin. The three former Conservatives were suspended without pay following an outside audit of their expenses.
Harb, who was a Liberal senator until his spending came under scrutiny through an external audit,â?? retired in August after paying back $231,000.
Both Brazeau and Harb, along with Mike Duffy and Pamela Wallin, were subject to a lengthy Senate investigation of their expenses claims and living allowances.
A Senate committee determined each of the four had claimed tens of thousands of dollars in expenses that they were not entitled to.
The Senate then passed its files to the RCMP.
The charges expected Tuesday against Brazeau and Harb are the first to flow from the RCMP's own lengthy investigation of the spending scandal, underway since May 2013.
[B]Neither admits to wrongdoing[/B]

The Senate's internal economy committee ordered Brazeau, Harb, Duffy and Wallin to repay their alleged improper expenses: Brazeau to the tune of nearly $50,000 and Harb to more than $230,000.
Neither has admitted any wrongdoing, and both have mounted spirited campaigns in their own defence.
Until he was suspended from the Senate last year, Brazeau had faced a 20 per cent garnishment of his salary. It's now not clear how or if Brazeau has continued to repay what the Senate says he owes.
Harb, on the other hand, repaid the entire amount in May and subsequently retired from the Senate. He now collects a Senate pension.
On Tuesday, Harb's lawyer Sean May said Harb will respond to "any and all allegations."
"It's disappointing that charges are being laid. He's going to be prepared to respond in court and he looks forward to that."