Pubdate: Fri, 03 Jun 2005
Source: Victoria News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2005 Victoria News
Contact:  http://www.vicnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1267
Author: Brennan Clarke
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?236 (Corruption - Outside U.S.)

PIECING TOGETHER THE BASI AFFAIR

It's been almost 18 months since police descended on the provincial 
legislature to collect evidence that resulted in criminal charges against 
ministerial assistants Dave Basi and Bob Virk.

It's been almost twice that long since the start of an RCMP investigation 
into money-laundering, drug-trafficking and organized crime that resulted 
in charges against Basi and seven other men from Ontario and B.C.

And judging by the snail's pace of legal proceedings so far, it will be 
many more months before the public gets an accurate picture of the events 
that led to these charges. (Basi's arraignment hearing on the drug charges 
has been delayed until the end of June, as has his arraignment on fraud and 
breach of trust charges stemming from the legislature raid.)

There's a good chance the trials won't begin until next year and an even 
better chance that one will have to be completed before the other begins.

Still, there's a fair amount of information in the public domain that, when 
viewed as a whole, offers plenty of insight into both the 
government-related charges and the investigation that led RCMP to the 
provincial legislature.

What emerges is a complicated web of family and political ties, a hazy 
picture of people with money that needed hiding and people who helped them 
hide it.

The logical starting point is Dec. 1, 2003, a date that marked the end of 
20 months of preliminary investigation and the beginning of a series of 
search warrants and evidence seizures that brought charges against Basi, 
Virk, Victoria police officer Ravinder Dosajnh and eight others.

Four weeks before the Dec. 28, 2003 raid on the legislature, RCMP asked the 
Attorney General's ministry to appoint a special prosecutor in the case, an 
indication that police were well aware of the implications of what they had 
uncovered.

Just over a week later, police searched the Bremerton Street home of 
Mandeep Sandhu, seizing a computer hard drive and, we later learned, an 
undisclosed quantity of cash. On Dec. 15, 2003, Victoria police Const. 
Ravinder Dosanjh, was suspended for breach of trust and obstruction of 
justice after a 10-month internal investigation.

In December 2004, Dosanjh was charged with advising Sandhu to lie about 
"the origin of funds seized" from the Bremerton Street house. Victoria 
police have said that Dosanjh's suspension was "indirectly related" to the 
suspension of Dosanjh. They haven't elaborated on that connection, but the 
warrants provide a few hints.

It's been established that Dosanjh and Sandhu are cousins who owned 
property together. We know that Sandhu had some money originating from 
questionable sources and Dosanjh allegedly counselled him to mislead police 
about the origins of the cash.

Nine months later, in September 2004, alleged criminal links emerged 
between Basi and Sandhu when the two men were among eight people from B.C. 
and Ontario charged with drug trafficking.

It's clear that RCMP learned something during the course of their drug 
investigation that got them interested first in Sandhu, then in Dosanjh.

It also appears, in retrospect, that the Dec. 28 police raids on the 
legislature were a sideshow to the main event, which for police has always 
been the drug-trafficking and organized-crime connection.

Most reporters I've talked to believe that police stumbled on improper 
dealings with regard to the province's move to sell BC Rail, triggering an 
entirely new branch of the investigation.

Just before Christmas, Basi, Virk and a third man, Transportation Ministry 
communications officer Aneal Basi, were charged with bribery, breach of 
trust and fraud in relation to the provincial government's sale of BC Rail.

Of particular note is the inclusion of a money-laundering charge against 
Aneal Basi, Dave Basi's cousin, in the court documents. As with Sandhu, 
police allege Aneal Basi was involved in laundering money, specifically 
cash he accepted from Basi between "April 1, 2002 and Jan. 31, 2004."

The origin of the money that Aneal was allegedly laundering on behalf of 
his cousin remains unclear, although logic would suggest that bribery 
proceeds and drug-trafficking profits are the two leading candidates.

The documents clearly imply that Basi, who made about $65,000 a year at his 
day job yet co-owned four homes in Greater Victoria, had money of dubious 
origins that needed hiding.

Within days of the raid on the legislature, RCMP uncovered and dismantled a 
marijuana growing operation at a Shawnigan Lake house owned by Dave Basi.

As the months wore on, edited search warrant information confirmed the 
original investigation focused on the "bulk trafficking" of marijuana and 
cocaine. Hints of the investigation's broad scope emerged last June when a 
federal Crown prosecutor revealed that the RCMP were seeking additional 
search warrants.

Three months later, the drug-trafficking charges were laid against Sandhu, 
Basi, Sooke resident Jagmohan Bains and five Ontario residents.

Bains, whose case is being handled by a federal prosecutor, isn't scheduled 
to go to trial until April 3, 2006. In the meantime, there's a publication 
ban on the evidence. Sandhu's trial is also subject to a publication ban.

During a recent discussion of the Basi case, a News Group reporter said 
something like "so what, he had a little grow-op in Shawnigan Lake."

We don't know for sure what Dave Basi was into or how deep he was into it, 
but clearly the allegations against him involve far more than a few pot 
plants in a rental house up the Malahat.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom