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(A spokesman for Mr. Baird says that while the minister has met with Mr. Jacobson in Jerusalem, he has never fired a gun in Israel. Mr. Kenney’s office did not respond to the gun-shooting question.)

Mr. Jacobson’s ties to the federal Conservatives were once so strong, he said in an interview Thursday, that a pair of cabinet ministers — whom he would not name — suggested he could be Canadian ambassador to Israel, if he wanted. He says he was encouraged to run for Parliament, as a Conservative candidate.

But that was before his legal problems were aired in public.

In October 2010, Mr. Jacobson flew to Nassau, Bahamas, for a secret meeting with U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) officials. He was in trouble, and it threatened his livelihood, his reputation and his standing in political circles, in Canada and abroad.

Very quietly, two years earlier, he had pleaded guilty in United States District Court to one count of money laundering related to the illegal sale of pharmaceuticals via the Internet. Mr. Jacobson’s involvement was limited to the processing of payments.

His guilty plea had remained sealed and Mr. Jacobson had not been sentenced. His secret trip to Nassau and the meeting with DOJ officials was an effort to negotiate a light sentence and discuss a possible charge reduction, perhaps to a simple misdemeanour.

According to court documents, Mr. Jacobson claimed to have damaging information about Israeli bank executives with ties to organized crime. He would try to use it as leverage at the Nassau meeting. He wanted to avoid prison.