Benoit Corbeil is the only executive member of the Liberal Party to admit he accepted illegal cash donations from a Quebec ad firm at the heart of the sponsorship scandal, and is promising to name names when he testifies at the sponsorship inquiry.

Corbeil, the former director-general of the Liberal Party's office in Montreal, will testify before the Gomery commission in early May. However, he spoke to CTV's Rosemary Thompson Thursday in Quebec City and gave a preview of the story he will tell:

• He remembers accepting an envelope stuffed with sponsorship money destined for the party, because the Liberals were broke and he had to pay campaign workers.
• He helped organize the 1995 unity rally, when thousands of Canadians traveled by bus and plane to Montreal just before a referendum on sovereignty. The rally cost a fortune, and Corbeil alleges it wasn't all declared.
• Corbeil says that in 1995 Liberals had a strategy to fast-track 15,000 immigrants to Quebec through citizenship court, so new citizens could boost the federalist vote. Then-Quebec premier Jacques Parizeau hinted at this scenario on referendum night, when he blamed the slim separatist defeat on "money and the ethnic vote."

"Yes, Mr. Parizeau was right to say what he did," Corbeil told Thompson.

One of Corbeil's most stunning allegations is that some Liberal supporters received judicial appointments in exchange for working on election campaigns. That allegation has been vigorously denied in Ottawa.

"The fact is that no judicial appointment is made until it has gone through a committee," Prime Minister Paul Martin told reporters Thursday.

Justice Minister Irwin Cotler echoed Martin's statements. "Right now we're only talking about an interview with one person who made allegations, and those allegations have not been proven," Cotler said.

Cotler said his only criteria for making such appointments are merit and excellence.

Cash contributions

Corbeil told The Globe and Mail that the money he received in 2000 was then funneled to Liberal supporters who took unpaid leaves to work on the party's campaign.

Corbeil said he liked to call them "fake volunteers."

Corbeil alleged that five of the "volunteers" received cheques issued by Groupaction in 2000, through Commando Marketing, a company owned by one of Groupaction's employees.

He said the contribution of nearly $100,000 came after he asked an unnamed senior official for money.

Corbeil told the newspaper that the people who received the cash were part of a group of Liberal supporters at the party's Montreal headquarters during the campaign.

He said the group mainly comprised lawyers, engineers and accountants from major firms that wanted contracts after the election.

"They don't want to get paid right away, they want to get paid later," he said.

The Opposition seized on Corbeil's comments and used them to hammer the Liberals during question period in the Commons.

Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan says Corbeil has made some "very serious and disturbing allegations."

"Anyone who's done wrong should be punished to the full extent of the law," she said, adding that is why Judge Gomery should be allowed to continue with his investigation into the scandal.

Some of Corbeil's statements corroborate earlier testimony at the Gomery inquiry from Jean Brault, head of Groupaction.

Brault claimed in his testimony that he kicked back taxpayer money to the federal Liberal party, a deception he alleged involved senior Liberal organizers and people close to former prime minister Jean Chretien.

"I took the bills (from Mr. Brault) and with that, I paid people, without declaring it (to Elections Canada)," Corbeil said, refusing to confirm exactly how much money he received that day.

"I have to admit it, that's the way it happened," he said.