This material is subject to legal complaint by Nazim Gillani.

Nazim Gillani, who partied and discussed government grants with former MP Rahim Jaffer, has talked a lot about being a banker for the Hells Angels in Vancouver.

Gillani boasted of this to people in Toronto who crossed him, and Friday two people affiliated with the organized crime group said they were happy to see Gillani leave British Columbia.

Gillani ran afoul of the biker group for talking too much about what he was doing – he told people he was laundering money. He left B.C. in 2005, shortly after he received a severe beating, though not from a member of the Hells Angels.

A man who claimed he was owed $150,000 by Gillani spotted the dodgy financier coming out of Smiley O'Neils pub in Vancouver. The man, who spoke to the Star Friday – he does not want his name used because he was never investigated by police for the beating – confronted Gillani, threw him into a stone fountain, breaking his cheekbone and nose. Shortly after that, Gillani started carrying a gun, a .22 pistol. Police on a routine stop discovered the gun and charged Gillani with carrying a weapon. Gillani left town shortly after and set up shop in a rented $1 million house on Kipling Ave. in Etobicoke.

Gillani filled the driveway with cars – Hummers and Mercedes at first, then BMWs and a Porsche – and the house with an odd cast of characters including wannabe financiers, 20-something business students and a suspended lawyer. For muscle, he brought in an ex-Argonaut offensive guard.

Following the Star's publication Thursday of a story linking Rahim Jaffer to Gillani, dozens of people who claim they were burned by Gillani called to vent their anger. Two groups of businessmen have made complaints to police. And on Gillani's International Strategic Initiatives website, the list of eight employees dropped to two overnight (just Gillani and his vice-president, ex-Argo Mike Mihelic).

So how did Gillani and Jaffer, a Tory politician, meet in the first place?

Both men are Ismaili Muslims. Gillani's family is one of a group of well-off, financially astute businessmen in Toronto. Jaffer was introduced to Gillani's family – it's not known by whom – in 2008 and they struck up a friendship that involved dinners and trips to Club Paradise, a strip club on Bloor St. Whether Jaffer knew of his new friend's background is unclear. For the past three weeks the Star has tried to get both men to discuss their relationship, to no avail.

As the Star reported this week, both men discussed Jaffer's ability to provide businesses with government "green grants" at various business meetings, one with a trio of high-class escorts.

According to one source (a businessman who lost hundreds of thousands of dollars to Gillani), Gillani remarked in October that he was "out with Helena Guergis and Rahim" at a dinner. This was about three weeks after Jaffer was charged with speeding, drunk driving and cocaine possession. Whether Guergis knew about Gillani's background is also unclear.

Kevin Donovan can be reached at 416-312-3503 or kdonovan@thestar.ca