Since reports of misspending in the federal sponsorship program first came to light, hundreds of Canadians have been implicated in the scandal. Here's a look at some of the key players.

POLITICAL PLAYERS

Former prime minister Jean Chretien has not been formally implicated in the mishandling of sponsorship funds, but the fact the program was his idea puts him squarely at the centre of the controversy.

Chretien -- who signed off on the creation of the program using cash from his secret discretionary 'national unity fund' -- has insisted he knew nothing of how the program was actually being run, or where the money was being spent.

During his fiery appearance before the inquiry, Chretien firmly defended program as necessary for national unity.

The minister at the head of the department responsible for the sponsorship program, Alfonso Gagliano was accused of steering spending to projects in Quebec that he or the federal Liberal Party favoured.

Despite witnesses' testimony that Gagliano interfered with the allocation process, the former minister of public works said he would often advise, but never instruct how the money should be divided up.

The senior civil servant in charge of running the program from its inception through its heyday until 1999, Guite was singled out for "breaking every rule in the book" while dispersing the sponsorship funds.

In his defence, Guite said he never signed off on major spending without approval from someone Chretien's inner circle, including Guite with whom he met to discuss the file at least once a week.

Guite also alleged former public works ministers Gagliano and David Dingwall, as well as Chretien aides Pelletier and Jean Carle, were the ones who steered the monies.

Alongside ad exec Jean Brault, Guite is now awaiting trial on five counts of fraud and one count of conspiracy in connection with the sponsorship program.

Marc LeFrancois was fired by Prime Minister Paul Martin from his job as president of Via Rail amidst allegations the passenger train service got free advertising paid for by the department of Public Works.

According to the Auditor-General, Via even issued a fake invoice to facilitate the money's move from the ministry.

In testimony before Gomery, LeFrancois insisted the Crown corporation had never participated in any "not-genuine transactions."

The former Liberal cabinet minister was compelled to resign his job as Canada Post's president after an audit revealed he had racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual expenses without providing receipts.

He had already been suspended with pay, following allegations of involvement in the sponsorship scandal by Auditor-General Sheila Fraser.

Ouellet was accused of using his position to funnel federal sponsorship funding for hockey-themed stamps into untendered contracts with Lafleur Communication Marketing after being wined and dined by the ad firm's boss, Jean Lafleur.

Denying any wrongdoing, Ouellet countered the allegations by saying that professional relationships based on merit later grew into social acquaintances.

Chretien's former chief of staff, Pelletier grabbed national headlines when he was fired from his position as chair of Via Rail Canada Inc., after he described former Olympian Myriam Bedard as a single mother who deserved pity.

His comments came after Bedard testified before the Gomery inquiry that she had witnessed wasteful and bizarre billing practices during her time as a Via employee.

Pelletier also came under fire for allegedly influencing where sponsorship funds would be channelled from his position within Chretien's PMO.

In his appearance before Justice Gomery, Pelletier admitted discussing some projects with top sponsorship bureaucrat Chuck Guite. He denied, however, dictating whether any specific project should or shouldn't be funded.

ADVERTISING EXECUTIVES

Jean Lafleur -- known as a major donor to the federal Liberals as well as a personal friend of ex-Canada Post boss Andre Ouellet -- was at the helm of the ad agency Lafleur Communications Marketing during the six-year period in which it was paid $31.9 million in sponsorship funds.

In the period between 1994 and 2000, Lafleur Marketing also earned some $35 million for promotional projects commissioned by various Crown coporations including Via Rail, Ports Canada and Canada Post.

At the same time, Lafleur reportedly pocketed $12 million in salaries and bonuses paid to himself and his family.

In his appearance before the Gomery commission, Lafleur said his faulty memory prevented him from answering many questions.

Lafleur and his agency, Lafleur Communications, are among the 11 companies and eight individuals named in a federal government lawsuit aimed at recovering misspent sponsorship funds.

In his Gomery testimony, Groupaction president Jean Brault described channelling $1 million in under-the-table payments to such high-profile Liberals as Quebec wing heads Quebec party bosses Michel Beliveau and Benoit Corbeil in return for lucrative multi-million dollar federal contracts.

To pay for the inducements, Brault told the commission he regularly inflated Groupaction invoices for government contracts. Between 1995 and 2001, his company wound up netting $23 million in sponsorship deals.

Alongside former bureaucrat Chuck Guite, Brault is awaiting trial on six counts of fraud related to the now-defunct program.

After admitting at the Gomery inquiry to blatantly inflating costs and filing false invoices, Communications Coffin president Paul Coffin became the first person to face criminal charges in connection with the sponsorship scandal.

In May, he pleaded guilty to 15 counts of fraud and handed a conditional sentence that requires him to lecture students about business ethics.

Coffin and his company are now also on the list of 11 firms and eight individuals the federal government wants to pay back misappropriated sponsorship funds.

As organizer of Jean Chretien's 1990 leadership campaign, Corriveau's ties to the federal Liberals are long-held and well-known.

Corriveau was accused in the sponsorship scandal of overseeing a kickback scheme that saw him scrape a 10 per cent fee for acting as the middleman in illicit cash payments linked to sponsorship contracts.

But Corriveau, whose Pluri Design agency got $8 million in sub-contracts from sponsorship-funded companies, dismissed the allegations as "absurd and unbelievable."