OTTAWA – A forensic accountant is expected to take the stand today as the Sen. Mike Duffy trial in Ottawa marches on.
Mark Grenon is the Crown’s expert witnesses on the money trail around Duffy’s expenses.
A veteran Senate staffer testified Monday that it was known around the corridors of the upper chamber that staff took shortcuts when they filed travel claims for senators.
Loren Cicchini, an aide to Senate Speaker Leo Housakos, was the second staffer to tell Duffy’s trial that senators would regularly pre-sign travel claim forms before they were filled in and
submitted.
Former Duffy assistant Diane Scharf testified last week that pre-signing forms was a common practice to save time. The Crown could use this recent testimony to illustrate how Duffy and others abused the public’s trust but it could also bolster Duffy’s defence that while he might have taken part in administrative irregularities, he didn’t break the law.
Duffy has pleaded not guilty to 31 charges of fraud, breach of trust and bribery, several of them in connection to trips he took while claiming to be on Senate business.
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