A former vice-president at Groupaction, one of the advertising firms implicated in the sponsorship scandal, says he's launching a class action lawsuit against Ottawa to recover lost taxpayer money.

Alain Richard told Canada AM Thursday that Prime Minister Paul Martin's government is not putting enough effort into recovering the money lost in the scandal.

"They should take into consideration that there was fraud, and we need to know where the money went and we want our money back," Richard said.

Richard has created a website to announce his lawsuit and says several thousand Canadians have written in over the last 24 hours, wanting to join. The website is called www.jean-paul.ca, named after Martin and his predecessor, Jean Chretien.

A statement on the website estimates that "the friends of our government owe more than $50 to each Canadian." Richard said he will file the suit once a certain number of names have been collected, though he wouldn't reveal the number.

The government has called a judicial inquiry headed by Quebec judge John Gomery, to find out who was responsible for the misspending in the $250-million sponsorship program. As well, a special counsel has been appointed to try to recover the lost funds.

Richard says he believes the inquiries and committees will be a waste of time and will never be able to get real answers.

"I don't think there's really going to be a conclusion. There's going to be a lot of paperwork, but no paper trail. And it's going to last years and cost millions of dollars to taxpayers."

Richard said he was vice-president of Groupaction's corporate branch but was not involved in the government relations division implicated in the sponsorship affair. He has said that shortly after he started asking questions about the allegedly phony invoices, he was let go from the firm.

Richard says though he lost his job in 1997, he was already seeing signs of big money rolling into Groupaction by the time he left.

"I saw the key players coming into the agency, smiling and I knew what was going on. It was obvious. You don't need a master's degree like I have to add up the dollars," he says.

The former Groupaction VP says he also recently sent a letter to Martin, offering to tell his story. But he says he has received no response.

"They're probably having a hard time finding the letter. And I'm not an Olympic medallist so I guess I cannot put enough pressure on the government."

A Martin spokesman would not confirm whether the letter was received but says the government is "very appreciative that people are coming forward."

"We want to assure them that every letter we receive in this matter will be forwarded to judge Gomery and to public inquiry officials," Justin Kingsley said.

Richard added he has received threats since coming forward, including threatening phone calls at night.