Sydney, Austrailia - The Exclusive Brethren sect has been cleared of two out of three allegations of breaching federal electoral law after a nine-month police investigation.
A third investigation is continuing, but has so far yielded no evidence of wrongdoing.
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty said yesterday the police investigation into the Brethren's spending of $370,000 on pro-Liberal Party advertising had turned up no evidence that the sect broke campaign disclosure laws.
Mr Keelty told Greens senator Bob Brown in a Senate estimates hearing that police had also been unable to find any evidence that the Brethren were behind an unauthorised advertising pamphlet, distributed in Wentworth, in the lead-up to the election.
Mr Keelty said police were still examining revelations that a Brethren member deposited $340,000 into the bank accounts of a company that paid for the advertising.
The company, Willmac, was set up by a Brethren member and paid for dozens of pro-John Howard and anti-Greens pamphlets.
The Brethren has always denied the church itself was behind the ad blitz.
Willmac was set up three weeks before the election and deregistered 18 months after it.