OTTAWA – Sen. Mac Harb received $145,000 in loans a week after he was ordered to repay tens of thousands of dollars in housing allowances.
In the initial Senate report into his spending, tabled May 9, the Upper Chamber demanded Harb repay nearly $51,000. That figure has since ballooned to $231,649.07, a consequence of broadening the investigation by several years.
Harb hired lawyers to fight the report findings and resigned from the Liberal caucus before eventually repaying more than $51,000 to the Senate.
But just eight days after the audit was made public, Harb accepted three separate loans totalling $145,000 from an Ottawa-based company, according to land registry documents.
An Ottawa lawyer, Brian Karam, owns the numbered company behind the three loans, each taken against the value of a separate property.
All three properties are located in the same condominium complex in Ottawa.
Earlier reports Wednesday claimed Harb had received one $55,0000 loan. But further analysis by Global News revealed two additional property records registered to Harb with loans listed under each.
Corporate registry documents show Karam is the sole owner of the company that gave the loans to Harb.
Karam is also partner in another company that owns an extended-stay hotel. That hotel has received at least one federal government contract.
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Because of that, the loans could prove problematic — according to the Criminal Code, government officials can’t accept money from a person who deals with the federal government without first receiving written permission.
Neither Karam nor Harb’s office replied to requests for comment before deadline. Records show that Harb did, however, declare the loans with the Senate ethics officer, as required for loans exceeding $10,000.
The ethics officer would not comment specifically on the transaction, noting the office is bound by confidentiality.
When reached in Moncton on Wednesday, the new chair of the Senate’s Board of Internal Economy, Conservative Sen. Gerald Comeau, said he hadn’t yet heard about Harb’s loans.
“It’s hard for me to comment on revelations I’ve not seen yet,” he said. “Probably internal economy will have a look at it to see if there’s anything we can do about doing an investigation from our end.”
Harb was one of a trio of senators investigated, who together stand accused by the Senate of wrongly collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars in Senate housing allowances.
The matters of Senators Patrick Brazeau, Mike Duffy and Harb are the subjects of ongoing RCMP investigations.
* This story was update Thursday, Aug. 8 at 9:40 a.m. in order to reflect the facts that initial allegations of misspending came from the Senate.
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