Wednesday, December 05, 2012

RailGate Renumeration Revisited: The 'Official' Version

AllTheMillionsThatFit
NoTreasuryBoardNoCabinetVille


Something tells me that we are going to want to revisit former Campbell/Clark government Deputy Attorney General Mr. David Loukidelis' version of how the Six Million Dollar deal came into being one day soon.

So...

For the record, and in his own words (not to mention 'in writing'), here is Mr. Loukidelis' version, from the fall of 2010 just as the Railgate trial was coming to screeching to a halt in the wake of the 'deal':


"It is important to clarify for the record the circumstances relating to the decision to release Mr. Basi and Mr. Virk from their liability to repay their legal costs of the prosecution that concluded this week with their guilty pleas.

On October 5, 2010, it came to the attention of the Legal Services Branch, Ministry of Attorney General, that the special prosecutor had proposed resolution of the prosecutions through guilty pleas.

Discussions then took place between the Legal Services Branch and defence counsel, including with respect to their clients’ liability to repay their legal costs. (The indemnities provided that they would have to do so unless acquitted on all counts.)

Legal Services Branch referred the matter to me and to the Deputy Minister of Finance. The Deputy Minister of Finance has authority under the Financial Administration Act respecting this matter. He and I considered the issue. A major consideration was the relatively small amounts that might be recovered from Mr. Basi and Mr. Virk compared to the millions of additional dollars it would cost the government to continue to fund defence, prosecution and court-related costs through to the completion of the trial, and to fund any appeals, with no guarantee of convictions.

Based on the above, in our respective capacities the Deputy Minister of Finance and I decided to release Mr. Basi and Mr. Virk from their liability to repay. I communicated that decision to the Attorney General on October 8, 2010.

No one outside the Legal Services Branch, myself and the Deputy Minister of Finance had any knowledge of this or involvement. For clarity, neither the special prosecutor nor the Attorney General had any knowledge of the matter or any involvement in this.

A letter is being sent today to counsel for Mr. Basi and counsel for Mr. Virk releasing them and their clients from the October 14, 2010 condition that required they not discuss the above financial matters and that they refer all inquiries to the Ministry of Attorney General. "



Need a little more background?

You can find it here.


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Please note the 'release' of Mess'rs Basi and Virk and their lawyers in the final paragraph of Mr. Loukidelis' "statement' above....proMedia mavens, especially (take note, I mean)...
Next up, former Campbell/Clark Attorney General Mr. Geoff Plant will explain, for the record and in his own words, why a prior 'understanding' is not a prior 'inducement'....

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

One of the hinges on which the deal swings is the assertion that Mr. Basi and Mr. Virk had no ability to repay their legal costs.

Has any research been done to find out what exactly the value of their assets were in October 2010?

Don F. said...

There is no other statement than mr. Loukidelis's needed to prove that the guilty pleas of Mr Basi and Mr. Virk were in fact 'Bought'.
He is very clear here that the main consideration discussed was furure cost's should the trial proceed. This implies that they are aware that the only way they can see to secure these pleas is to buy them. It is very clear that these pleas were not derived by any action of the court or any result of that trial and they were not 'found guilty'.
In that light the whole trial was a sham!

Don F. said...

Another point upon rereading his statement is that justice was not a consideration only the cost associated should they not pay. Is that or was that the main consideration of the court as well?

kootcoot said...

The government certainly could have collected SOME from Basi and Virk - after all they had signed paperwork giving the government the opportunity to seize real estate assets. The government could have seized a lot more from Basi and Virk than they can garnishee from the welfare check of a welfare client with an overpayment.

And that effing Campbell was howling at the moon about how Glen Clark should be made to pay his legal costs over the deck and the thugs from the North Burnaby card room, if he had been found guilty.

Campbell reminds me of the character in Rob Roy who is like a rooster crowing as he scratches with his talons into the pile of manure that he crows atop!

These BC liaRs and Harper Reformatories don't just need to be turfed from office, but taken off the street (and put into cages) so as not to pollute normal people........

Then that sorry excuse for a human Jason Kenny got his jollies harassing some Roma today.......now he can go home a admire his statue of his fascist hero....the one from Europe, not Sleazy Stevie!

Norm Farrell said...

Excellent analysis. Not one to be found in the corporate press.