Former Campaign Worker Charged With Fraud

Former Campaign Worker Charged With Fraud

Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 15:07

Charges have been laid against a former campaign volunteer, after the RCMP investigated the questionable sale of 1,100 Saskatchewan NDP memberships during the 2009 party leadership campaign.

RCMP say Ernest Morin has been charged with forgery, uttering and attempting to utter forged documents.

He is set to appear in court in Regina on Feb. 17.

Police launched an investigation last June, after concerns were raised about the validity of party memberships purchased by the Dwain Lingenfelter campaign in the names of members of the Flying Dust and Waterhen Lake First Nations, in the Meadow Lake area.

There were allegations that some of the memberships, which cost the campaign just under $10,000, may have been forged.

A report commissioned by the NDP into the scandal said an unidentified volunteer with Lingenfelter’s campaign team filled out membership forms and signed them for people without their knowledge.

The report said Lingenfelter, who eventually won the party leadership, did not condone the actions.