TORIES CUT TIES WITH KEY B. C. ORGANIZER
SOUTH ASIAN COMMUNITY OUTREACH VOLUNTEER FACED LEGAL TROUBLES
The federal Conservative Party has cut ties with one of its key South Asian community organizers in B.C. after the National Post revealed his past legal troubles.
Businessman Raj Bhela has been photographed frequently with Andrew Scheer, and on social media has described the Conservative leader as his “best friend.” In an interview with an IndoCanadian newspaper in late 2016, Scheer said he was “excited that Raj has taken a leadership role in my campaign.”
However, court records show that last year TD Bank accused Bhela and his business associates of being part of a fraudulent $ 500,000 cheque “kiting” scheme, a civil case that resulted in a default judgment in favour of the plaintiffs. Bhela and his associates have also been named in multiple civil suits involving mortgage defaults in the millions.
Bhela had earlier told the Post in an email that he’d had an “informal role as a liaison to the South Asian community.” He said the allegation of cheque fraud was a “mischaracterization” and that the case and the other civil actions against him were resolved amicably.
Jake Enwright, Scheer’s director of media relations, said this week that Bhela was never paid for his outreach work. But upon learning of his legal troubles, the party decided to end its relationship with him.
“We made the decision this individual will no longer have a volunteer role,” Enwright said.
Bhela, who described his occupation as the buying and selling of properties, first made headlines in December 2014 when the CBC reported that he and other members of B. C.’s Sikh community were quitting the federal Liberal Party.
“We think this Liberal Party’s been hijacked by the WSO,” Bhela was quoted as saying at the time, referring to the World Sikh Organization.
In late 2016, the South Asian Link newspaper reported that “well- known Indo- Canadian political mover- shaker Raj Bhela” had taken on a role as South Asian outreach co-ordinator for Scheer’s leadership campaign.
“I look forward to working with him to deepen my connection to B.C.’s vibrant and important South Asian community,” Scheer was quoted as saying at the time.
Following Scheer’s victory, the Link reported that Bhela had been given an expanded role as an adviser to the Conservative Party campaign manager on the South Asian community and published an image of his new business card, featuring the Conservative Party’s logo and contact information that included the address of the party’s Ottawa headquarters.
“I’m excited to be part of ( the) Conservative Party team and will continue the good work that got Andrew Scheer elected as our leader and now we must put him in the prime minister’s chair,” he said at the time.
Bhela was “one of the big organizers” in the South Asian community, Paul R. Dhillon, the Link’s editor, told the Post. “They gave him that (role) for his good work.”
Enwright confirmed this week that Bhela took on the position after Scheer’s leadership victory and “in his volunteer capacity, has on occasion provided advice ( on community outreach).”
Conservative Party spokesman Cory Hann said the issuance of business cards to volunteers is pretty common. “It’s a template that gets provided to any volunteer that wishes to have a card.”
Enwright also confirmed that Bhela has served as Scheer’s personal driver when attending events in the Vancouver area. An itinerary from last November showed that Bhela was to chauffeur Scheer, his executive assistant and photographer to a luncheon with the South Asian business community at a banquet hall in Surrey.
Bhela, who has been photographed numerous times with the party leader at public and private events and calls Scheer the “future prime minister of Canada” on social media, has donated over $ 4,000 to the party since 2015, records show.
Some members of the Indo- Canadian community questioned whether Bhela really wields that much political influence, suggesting there are a lot of engaged citizens who like to inflate their importance.
“Every South Asian man is a prominent mover and shaker in political circles,” one Conservative supporter said on the condition of anonymity.
At the same time Bhela’s interaction with the party was deepening, so, too, were his legal troubles.
In February 2017, TD Bank filed a civil claim alleging that Bhela and his business associates had obtained three bank drafts totalling $500,000 as part of a chequekiting scheme.
Cheque kiting, the court records state, occurs when a cheque is issued from an account whose balance is insufficient to cover it. Cheques and registered funds are subsequently “circulated from one bank to another and from one account to another, in a manner that maintains fictitious bank balances in some accounts while depositing the very same amounts in other accounts.”
Records show that TD Bank obtained default judgments — typically issued when parties have not responded — against Bhela and his associates and were awarded $ 500,000 in damages, plus costs.
Bhela said this week the bank’s claims were “in essence a mischaracterization” and the matter was “resolved amicably within a couple of days of the matter first coming to my attention and the case is over.”
One of the other people named in the civil action was Tarsem Singh Gill.
Gill, a former property developer, was implicated years ago in a $40-million real estate fraud case involving dozens of homeowners.
In 2013, Gill admitted to being involved in a complex pyramid scheme but later withdrew his guilty plea. A Crown prosecutor said this week a trial is still pending. A lawyer who has represented Gill did not respond to a request for comment.
Court records show that Bhela and other associates or numbered companies have also been the subject of multiple court orders in recent years related to mortgage defaults, with Bhela sometimes listed as the guarantor. The unpaid debts range from hundreds of thousands to millions.
Bhela did not address those cases in his email to the Post.
In another civil action in 2016, a Surrey- based building supplier claimed that a general contracting company operated by Bhela and his partners owed $ 89,000 in unpaid invoices. The court issued a judgment in favour of the plaintiffs for the money owed plus $ 57,000 interest.
A subsequent claim in 2017 from the building supplier alleged t hat while $25,000 had been paid back, Bhela and his partners conspired to prevent the company from collecting the remaining money.
Bhela said this week the dispute “as it related to me was resolved amicably back in 2016.”
Asked if the revelations about Bhela would change the way the Conservative Party deals with its citizen advisers, Hann said this week: “We’re an opposition party that relies on grassroots volunteers. We don’t have the mechanism of government around us to rely on the public service to provide a lot of things the Prime Minister would get. As an opposition party, we have to rely on volunteers. We’re still going to recruit volunteers — that certainly won’t change.”
BHELA SAID THE ALLEGATION OF CHEQUE FRAUD WAS A ‘MISCHARACTERIZATION.’