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OTTAWA — Several Conservative party leadership campaigns are worrying perpetrators of alleged fraud and vote-rigging won’t face consequences.

How rule-breaking will be punished is the talk of the party after 1,351 memberships, worth more than $17,000, were ruled invalid following an investigation last week.

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The two perceived leadership front-runners, Maxime Bernier and Kevin O’Leary, have exchanged verbal blows, with O’Leary publicizing fraud allegations last Thursday that sources confirm centre on the Bernier camp, and Bernier’s people leaking an affidavit on the weekend that implicates O’Leary in similar fraud.

Other candidates, including Andrew Scheer, Chris Alexander and Erin O’Toole, more quietly took vote-rigging concerns to the party. The first gossip of wrongdoing by the Bernier campaign reached party ears as early as a month ago, an insider said.

Allegations about both camps centre on rule-breaking in ethnic communities in the Greater Toronto Area. Bernier organizers allegedly signed up party members without their knowledge, using prepaid credit cards. An O’Leary organizer allegedly offered to pay for people’s memberships. The communities are known to have bolstered Patrick Brown’s leadership bid for the Ontario Progressive Conservatives.