EDMONTON—A fifth person has been slapped with fines in relation to the kamikaze campaign during the 2017 United Conservative leadership race.

Jeffrey Park and his wife, Michelle Park, each made $3,500 donations to Jeff Callaway during his bid to lead the UCP. For his and his wife’s donation, Park was hit with two fines totalling $10,500 on Thursday.

Park was hit with the fines for donating money to Callaway with funds that weren’t his and because he “furnished $3,500 to Michelle Park, for purpose of making contribution to Jeff Callaway,” according to the commissioner’s website which lists the fines.

The office of the election commissioner has been carrying out an investigation into irregular financial contributions made to Callaway during his leadership bid.

A cache of leaked emails obtained by the Star in March showed the Jason Kenney campaign pulling the strings on the Callaway campaign to undermine Kenney’s biggest rival, former Wildrose Party Leader Brian Jean.

Now Alberta’s premier-designate, Kenney has denied any wrongdoing in the matter. He explained away the speeches, videos, detailed planning and attacks ads undermining Jean, and given to the Callaway campaign team from his own campaign, as normal.

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Park and Callaway could not be immediately reached for comment on Thursday.

The leaked emails detail a plan to have Callaway run as a puppet — strings pulled by the Kenney team — so that during the leadership race Callaway could say things and attack Jean where Kenney could not. The mudslinging done by Callaway would mean Kenney could stay above the fray.

Happy Mann, a volunteer for the Kenney team, Cameron Davies, a communications manager for Callaway, and former UCP MLA Derek Fildebrandt, have all previously alleged that Kenney had knowledge of the plot.

Kenney has dismissed the public comments made by the three individuals, questioning their credibility.

Furthermore, a report by Maclean’s magazine in March outlined allegations that Callaway’s run was fuelled illegally using a $60,000 payment given by a corporate entity. Allegedly, the money was redistributed to a number of donors after they had passed off their money to Callaway to help him in his bid.

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Callaway has maintained his campaign was legitimate and the commissioner does not comment publicly on investigations.

Additionally, in early April, Callaway deployed lawyers to court in an attempt to halt the commissioner’s investigation during the provincial election, but a judge denied the request.

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