MONTREAL -- The jurors at Jacques Corriveau's fraud trial are now sequestered as they begin deliberating the fate of the ex-federal Liberal organizer.
Earlier, the trial judge told them they must decide whether Corriveau knowingly used his influence to secure himself millions of dollars in kickbacks.
Quebec Superior Court Justice Jean-Francois Buffoni told them in his final instructions they must wade through the evidence carefully.
Corriveau, who was a very close friend of former prime minister Jean Chretien and worked on his campaigns, is charged with fraud against the government, forgery and laundering proceeds of crime.
The Crown alleged Corriveau, 83, set up a kickback system on government contracts awarded during the sponsorship program and used his Pluri Design Canada Inc. firm to defraud Ottawa.
But Buffoni told the jurors that, to convict Corriveau, they must conclude he was not only influential but that he deliberately wielded his influence to secure "advantages and benefits" for himself, totalling some $6.5 million.
