Inside One of Canada's Most Secretive Agencies

Indeed, their money was especially welcome in two Canadian corporate headquarters, one in Montreal, the other in Ottawa. In a lengthy email thread strung out over the course of 2014, it was revealed that Bombardier had negotiated the sale of a luxury jet to a subsidiary of the ­Guptas' umbrella firm, Oakbay Investments. The new aircraft came outfitted with dark wood panelling, a gold swoosh along the ­fuselage, and a $52 million price tag. For anyone with even a cursory interest in corporate news, Bombardier's involvement with the Guptas would not have come as a surprise. In recent years, the struggling Montreal-based plane and train company has been accused of sacrificing due diligence in the haste to make a sale. What might have been surprising was this: $41 million of the jet's financing was provided directly to the Guptas by Export Development Canada, a Crown corporation owned by, well, you.