In October 2010, ministerial aides Dave Basi and Bob Virk pleaded guilty to breach of trust and receiving a benefit for leaking information about the BC Rail bidding process.
At that time the police were focused on breaking up a marijuana and cocaine smuggling ring between British Columbia and Ontario run by his cousin JissSingh Basi.
As a result, allegations of bribery were made (including money and the offer of potential employment in return for confidential government information).
On April 3, 2006, a Justice of the British Columbia Supreme Court ordered the further release of various documents used by police to obtain the search warrants served on individuals linked to the raids.
[7] The RCMP made it very clear that no elected officials were implicated in their investigation, and also provided a letter to Marissen (Paul Martin's BC Campaign Chair) confirming that he was also not implicated in any way and that they came to his house without a search warrant to seek his help because they thought he might be the "innocent recipient" of emails related to Virk's and Basi's resumes, because it was alleged that they were seeking job recommendations for federal political employment in Ottawa.
[8] Basi was an active volunteer for the Paul Martin campaign in British Columbia, who recruited many members of the Indo-Canadian community to the Liberal Party to vote in the leadership process.
This has led to rampant speculation and innuendo as government critics attempt to link Basi's activities to federal and provincial politicians and operatives, and spread "guilt by association".
Part of this speculation is fuelled by comments made to the media at the time of the raids by the officer in charge, that organized crime and corruption were present in "the highest levels of the government".
[25] Kinsella's involvement in the political corruption trial [26] has led observers to draw a link between the BC Rail scandal [27] and Gordon Campbell.
[28][29][30] According to an email cited by defense lawyer Kevin McCullough, Kinsella may have interceded with Premier Gordon Campbell's chief of staff to keep the sale of BC Rail to CN from "going off the tracks.
This reduced the sale price of BC Rail from $1.05 billion to roughly $500 million, thereby benefiting private shareholders of CN, albeit at the expense of the public at large.
[40] October 2010 – Defendants Dave Basi and Bob Virk agreed to change their plea to guilty on a reduced number of charges.