N.B. auditor: $50M loan was never enough to save Atcon

New Brunswick Auditor General Kim MacPherson addresses the media on Wednesday, June 15, 2016.

FREDERICTON - New Brunswick's auditor general says a $50-million loan given to Atcon by the former Liberal government of Shawn Graham was never going to be enough to save the Miramichi-based construction and manufacturing company from eventual failure.

Kim MacPherson has released her second report into the failure with an attempt to answer where the money went.

She says that while most of the nearly $70 million given to the company by the province went to business-related activities, more than $700,000 of personal expenses went through company accounts.

MacPherson says those purchases included a vacation property in Aruba, jewelry, luxury car leases, RRSP contributions and personal income tax payments.

She says the company was also leasing a corporate jet with operational costs of $8.2 million from 2008 to 2010.

Atcon declared bankruptcy in 2010, just nine months after receiving $50 million in new loans.

In a report released in 2015, MacPherson said the government provided the loans to Atcon despite advice to the contrary from senior government staff.

In February 2013, the conflict of interest commissioner concluded that Graham was in a conflict at the time the loan guarantees were provided because his father was a director of Vanerply, a Swedish subsidiary of Atcon.

Graham was fined $3,500.