Ramanisblog

Tag: money laundering

  • Sunanda Shashi Tharoor Sonia IPL Money Laundering

    The alleged murder of Sunanda Pushkar, wife of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, revealed by forensic study by AIMS, throws a lot of questions.

    At the time of the incident,information surfaced that two foreign nationals on forged passports traveled to Dubai on the night of the murder.

    Nothing more was heard of despite suspicions that the murder looked Mafia Style.

     

    Shashi Tharoor,Sunanda Pushkar .gif
    Shashi Tharoor,Sunanda Pushkar wedding.

    Now nearly after a year, with a change in the Government, the enquiry hotted up with suspicions about Tharoor’s alleged extra marital affair with a Pakistan journalist , Meher.

    The deposition of the Tharoor household that he heard Sunannda speaking to some one on the day of her murder that she would reveal everything to Media and Shashi Tharoor is finished.

    There is also the suspicion that, considering the Shashi Tharoor IPL connection might have been one of the reasons for the murder.

    Dr.Subramanian Swamy alleges that IPL was used to launder Oil for Food scam involving Iraq and Sunnanda was about to divulge the information linking Sonia Gandhi to IPL money laundering, Oil for scam.

    It may be noted that Natwar Singh, former Union Minister of the Congress also stated that Sonia Gandhi was involved in the Oil for Food fraud in which former UN Chief Kofi Annan’s son was indicted.

    ” Journalist Nalini Singh told TOI on Thursday that Shashi Tharoor’s wife, Sunanda Pushkar, had spoken to her about some IPL issue which she claims she could not comprehend. She said Sunanda had brought it up during the phone conversation the two had on the intervening night of January 16 and 17. Sunanda was found dead on January 17.

    “I don’t remember what exactly she said. I can recall she had said something like “look at this IPL mess also and that I also took on the IPL thing’,” Singh said.”

    Interestingly, Subramanian Swamy has been alleging that Sunanda was murdered as she wanted to expose the IPL muck and money laundering being carried out through it. He has even dragged a member of the Gandhi family into the controversy.

     

    “Dr. Subramaniam Swamy has said Congress lawmaker Dr. Shashi Tharoor must be thoroughly investigated in the murder of his wife Sunanda Puskhar Tharoor.

    “I am a 100 percent certain that Tharoor did not murder his wife, but I am a 100 percent sure that he was aware of it and facilitated it, ” he told The News Minute (TNM) in an interview conducted over the telephone. “This has been done because what Sunanda was to reveal points to Sonia Gandhi,” he added.

    Asked what was the nature of this evidence and he said there are two issues. “One is the money laundering through IPL which involves Robert Vadra and the other is the oil-for food stamps -Sonia Gandhi is the common link,” he said. The Indian Premier league (IPL) is a cricket tournament in India and the oil- for-food refers to the United Nations’ (UN) arrangement with Saddam Hussain’s Iraq to povide essential foods in exchange for oil. The UN provided food stamps, not cash, to Iraq as money to buy food for its people.”

    According to Swamy, Sunanda Pushkar had told friends that the food stamps distributed in Iraq and written in Arabic had Sonia Gandhi’s name on them. Sunanda Tharoor had told her friends that Tharoor had bragged that because of the evidence he had, he was untouchable.

    India and Iraq shared a close relationship at that time and Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral was among few world leaders who travelled to Baghdad to show his solidarity towards the Iraqi people. It maybe recalled that former foreign minister Natwar Singh resigned following the Volker committee report saying he had been made a scapegoat to protect other people. The oil-for-food also involved the family of the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan whose son Kojo Annan was working for a Switzerland based company named Cotecna Inspection Services S.A which from 1998-2003 had a contract with the UN to monitor food arriving in Iraq under the oil-for-food programme. There was no direct evidence linking Kojo Annan to the payments, but he received money from Cotecna long after he had stopped working for them. Shashi Tharoor was Kofi Annan’s right hand man ever since the two met in Geneva in the early eighties.

    “She was not on Alprax. Medical reports say that. Tharoor is on Alprax and he will break down if he is interrogated – this is what the Congress Party is afraid of,” Dr. Swamy said. ..

    ”

    One of the earliest allegations of wrongdoing in the programme surfaced on 25 January 2004, when al Mada, a daily newspaper in Iraq, published a list of individuals and organizations alleged to have received oil sales contracts via the UN’s Oil-for-Food Programme. The list came from over 15,000 documents which were reportedly found in the state-owned Iraqi oil corporation, which had close links to the Iraqi Oil Ministry.

    Named in the list of beneficiaries were British MP George Galloway and his charity, the Mariam Fund; former French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua; and Shaker al-Kaffaji, an Iraqi-American businessman, India’s foreign minister, Natwar Singh, was removed from office because of his role in the scandal. Many prominent Russian firms and individuals were also included on the al Mada list. Even the Russian Orthodox Church was supposedly involved in illegal oil trading. The former assistant to the Vatican secretary of state, Reverend Jean-Marie Benjamin, is said to have received rights to sell 4.5 million barrels (720,000 m3). George Galloway subsequently won two libel actions against the Christian Science Monitor and Daily Telegraph, which reported the allegations.

    Citation.

    http://www.thenewsminute.com/politics/1252#at_pco=cfd-1.0&at_ab=per-1&at_pos=0&at_tot=15&at_si=54b548202a0c17a0

     

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil-for-Food_Programme#al_Mada_list

    http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Sunanda-Pushkar-mentioned-IPL-recalls-scribe-Nalini-Singh/articleshow/37728616.cms

  • Co-Operative Banks Launder Money India RBI Retracts

    Co operative banks which were started to help the local poor have now graduated into laundering Big money.

     

    Reserve Bank of India.
    RBI

    The RBI has investigated and found that they were at the centre of the Home Trade scam too in 2001 Rs600 crore were found to have been swindled from more than 25 cooperative banks —13 of them in Maharashtra and 12 in Gujarat….

    ‘While the banking secretary announced last evening that action will be taken against the three private sector banks that were caught laundering money in the Cobrapost sting operation, Moneylife has learnt from banking sources that the trail of the moneylaundering investigation is leading up to a large number of cooperative banks across the country, who first accept cash and introduce it into the banking system.

     

    Banking sources tell us that scores of cooperative banks have been found literally acting as a back-office for initiating the conversion from black money to white money. They happily accept fake PAN cards and dodge detection by opening hundreds of accounts without proper KYC with each deposit carefully under Rs50,000. The money is then transferred to the larger private banks, through a prior arrangement, allowing these ‘successful’ Indian private banks to maintain a clean image.”..

    In the 1992securities scam Mercantile Cooperative and Bank of Karad were found to be involved in issuing false securities and had to be closed down. Then too, multi-national banks such as Standard Chartered systematically ensured that fake Banking Receipts (BRs) were passed through the smaller banks, in order to protect themselves. However, they were caught when the multi-disciplinary Janakiraman Committee began to investigate their actions with a fine-tooth comb.  Again in the scam of 2000, Ketan Parekh was found to have used Madhavpura Cooperative Bank as his own personal property in diverting cash Rs800 crore to support his speculative positions. The bank has collapsed causing losses to tens of thousand ordinary depositors and other banks.”

    The irony is that the same RBI, which confirmed the fraud,gave a clean chit to about 30 Banks  by  30/4.2013!

    The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) repeated assertion that it has found no evidence of money laundering in its inspection of three private banks, even before its inspection report is complete, has caused outrage.

    However, what is not clear is whether this refers only to the three banks that were targeted by the Cobrapost sting or covers all the 30-odd banks and their tentacles into the poorly regulated cooperative banking sector all over India.

    One bank has claims that a forensic investigation has given it a clean chit.

    But numerous whistleblowers, hopeful that RBI is serious about unearthing dubious business practices, have been forwarding details to central bank inspectors.

    Whistle -blowers confirmed this to MoneyLife.But numerous whistleblowers, hopeful that RBI is serious about unearthing dubious business practices, have been forwarding details to central bank inspectors.

    At least two such messages have also been forwarded to Moneylife and we believe that RBI has launched an investigation into the linkages with cooperative banks only on the basis of such confidential information. The second discovery is the massive mis-selling of third-party financial products, including insurance, derivatives and portfolio management without formal approval from SEBI. This includes dumping expensive insurance policies on home loan seekers by making it mandatory. Here is some feedback obtained by Moneylife through whistleblowers and bankers.

    Some cooperative banks are freely permitting significant cash deposits and withdrawals, which are probably not being reported to the financial intelligence unit (FIU) in the finance ministry, as required under money laundering rules. Or, if they are reported in a perfunctory manner, there is no evidence that the FIU either notices or acts on the information.

    In one case, a whistleblower has shown us documentary proof of a dummy account (the account-holder is a drunkard who apparently lent his name for a small price and even signed blank cheques to permit withdrawal of cash) opened with a cash deposit of Rs5,000. Within days, the bank permitted large cheques of Rs15 lakh+, totalling up to Rs80 lakh, being deposited and withdrawn in cash within three days.”

    Source.

    http://www.moneylife.in/article/whistleblowers-contradict-rbis-clean-chit-to-money-laundering-by-banks/32469.html?utm_source=PoweRelayEDM&utm_medium=Email&utm_content=Subscriber%2315960&utm_campaign=Today%27s%20Exclusives

    ”

     

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  • US,Europe Tax Evasion Corruption Money Laundering

    Many Indians ,especially the younger generation including and especially my son, is never tired of telling me how bad India is and how good, orderly and Citizens are in the US and Europe.

    I have agreed to the extent that India is corrupt and needs a Clean up and at the same time The West is not a Puritan either.

    If the scams in India are in crores of Indian Rupees it is in Millions of US Dollars and Pound Sterling abroad.

    This post is an eye opener for those who praise the citizens abroad for their Dutiful citizenship.

    You dot evaluate a culture by mere standing in Queues and cleanliness on the road.

    I have my brother’s Grand son living in Sweden for quite a few years now.

    He used to tell me how responsible and helpful the Swedes are in helping out citizens in need of Government assistance, be it a form filling even.

    Yes .

    I agreed and informed him that he would find, in the course of time, how corrupt and morally decaying a Society Sweden is in terms of personal Life style and how it ruins family life over there.

    Now,though he still appreciates the good things over there, he has realized that a Culture needs to be evaluated on the over all aspects of Life.

    Having said this,let me add that if only we develop the Industriousness, attention to Detail, Public Spirit and  responsible citizenship…!

    The following information is not to justify our corrupt practices but to point out that the West is decaying excepting in a material comforts  which is contributing to it s decay.

    Corruption
    Corruption

    “Tax evasion poses an acute challenge to developing and developed countries. From 2000 to 2010, illicit financial flows deprived developing countries of US$5.86 trillion. Tax evasion is not a victimless crime – for people in the developing world, the consequences of tax evasion can be a matter of life and death. If developing countries could recover this untaxed wealth, it could mobilise enormous resources for improving their public services and their citizens’ lives.

    The new Eurodad report “Secret structures, hidden crimes” finds that the hidden ownership of companies and other legal structures facilitates tax evasion, corruption and related crimes. It outlines the different ways that individuals abuse companies, trusts and other vehicles in order to evade taxes.

    It argues that better information about who owns and controls these companies and other set-ups is key to bringing trillions of dollars of offshore wealth back into the tax net and helping to prevent capital flight in the future.

    It argues that all forms of tax evasion can be more effectively fought where they are recognized as a “predicate offence” of money laundering as this makes it a criminal offence to help someone to hide and shift tax-evaded money. For some countries tax evasion is already a predicate offence, but only in a limited set of circumstances”…

    According Oxfam, tax evasion by
    individuals costs developing countries
    US$124 billion. Christian Aid has found that,
    even using a very conservative estimate,
    developing countries lose the equivalent of
    US$160 billion per year to tax evasion by
    multinational companies using false invoicing
    and blatant transfer mispricing. If this sum
    were channelled to developing countries’
    budgets, with allocation unchanged it
    would be enough to save the lives of 1,000
    children every day. Over the past decades,
    tax evasion by individuals has led to the
    accumulation of US$21–32 trillion of untaxed
    offshore wealth, according to recent research
    by the Tax Justice Network (TJN). About
    25-30% of this (US$5.3–9.6 trillion) is from
    developing countries.
    Money laundering is the process of
    concealing the source of money obtained
    by illegal means. It can be easier to hide
    tax-evaded income because, unlike other
    criminal proceeds, the money generally
    comes from a legitimate source initially. This
    money only becomes illegal later on, when
    the full amount of tax due is not paid. This
    generally involves the taxpayer concealing
    or under-declaring their income. Tax evasion
    and money laundering therefore go hand”..

    Hidden ownership facilitates
    corruption and crime
    Beneficial ownership transparency would
    also help address illicit capital flight, which
    cost developing countries an estimated
    US$859 billion in 2010. These flows comprise
    proceeds of corruption, crime and tax
    evasion. The United Nations Office on Drugs
    and Crime (UNODOC) estimated the total
    value of money laundering to be around
    US$2.1 trillion in 2009 – equivalent to 3.6% of
    global GDP.
    The UN and World Bank STAR (Stolen Asset
    Recovery Initiative) published some 150
    corruption cases involving hidden ownership
    of a corporate vehicle either to launder
    money or as part of the initial scam. Global
    Witness has produced a number of case
    studies on corrupt officials laundering their
    money abroad, while researchers have found
    that sub-Saharan Africa has lost US$700
    billion to illicit capital flight since 1970,
    dwarfing its outstanding debt of US$175
    billion. Corruption could also be curbed with
    strong AML rules.
    Hidden ownership masks
    accountability for human rights and
    environmental violations
    When a human rights violation takes place,
    those affected can find it difficult to take
    a case to court if the parent company or
    management further up the ownership chain
    cannot be identified. The same goes for
    environmental violations.”…

    Use of complex structures to
    circumvent financial regulation
    Before the financial crisis, many banks
    used complex and even illegal structures to
    hide losses that would later be bailed out
    by taxpayers. UK bank Northern Rock did
    this using an investment vehicle based in

    Guernsey registered in the name of a real
    charity, without the charity’s knowledge. If
    ownership information was made publically
    available online people and organisations
    would be able to check if their identity was
    being abused in this way.
    Tax avoidance
    Greater organisational transparency and
    beneficial ownership disclosure would
    make it easier to understand aggressive tax
    planning and avoidance schemes that exploit
    legal loopholes when transactions take
    place between jurisdictions with different
    rules. Many of these schemes exist in a
    contested grey area between what is legal
    and illegal. One telling example of the impact
    of tax avoidance in developing countries
    is ActionAid’s case study of UK brewing
    giant SABMiller.”

    http://eurodad.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Secret-structures-hidden-crimes_summary-online.pdf

    http://www.financialtaskforce.org/2013/01/14/secret-structures-hidden-crimes-urgent-steps-to-address-hidden-ownership-money-laundering-and-tax-evasion-from-developing-countries/

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  • HSBC Drug Money Laundering Escape How- Video,Transcript

    I blogged in July 2012 on how HSBC laundered Colombian Drug money and later how it is being used by the tainted politicians to salt away their ill-gotten gains.

    ‘When I read Frederick Forsyth,’s Book ‘The Cobra‘ the money laundering operations were so vivid,as in the case of acquiring a False Passport in ‘The Day of The Jackal‘, I. suspectedHSBC.

    Please read the book , you will know what I mean.

    All International banks which appear to be perfectly legitimate regularly indulge in these activities.

    Despite sound bites nothing may come of this investigation

    .http://ramanisblog.in/2012/07/13/hsbc-launders-colombian-drug-money/

    HSBC
    HSBC

    –HSBC Geneva is involved money laundering operations in India.

    -Government of India has the list.

    In July 2011, Indian Government received a list of roughly 700 people having bank accounts in HSBC, Geneva. The list contains bank balances of these people in 2006,” Kejriwal said.

    Some names from the list.

    Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambai – Rs 100 crores
    Anil Dhirubhai Ambani – Rs 100 crores
    Motech Software Private Ltd (Reliance Group company) – Rs 2,100 crores
    Reliance Industries Ltd – Rs 500 crores
    Sandeep Tandon – Rs 125 crores
    Anu Tandon – Rs 125 crores
    Kokila Dhirubhai Ambani – She has an account but there was no balance on that date
    Naresh Kumar Goyal – Rs 80 crores
    Burmans (3 family members) – Rs 25 crores
    Yashovardhan Birla – no balance.(ramanan50.wordpress.)

    (Reuters) – HSBC Holdings Plc agreed to pay a record $1.92 billion in fines to U.S. authorities for allowing itself to be used to launder a river of drug money flowing out of Mexico and other banking lapses.

    Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel and Colombia’s Norte del Valle cartel between them laundered $881 million through HSBC and a Mexican unit, the U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday.(Reuters)

    How is it that HSBC has escaped with out a single Executive being arrested?

    In India there is not even a whimper on the allegation of its money laundering?

    Story:

    The New Wave of Bank Scandals: Money Laundering, Drug Cartels and Li

    “The banking giant HSBC has escaped indictment for laundering billions of dollars for Mexican drug cartels and groups linked to al-Qaeda. Despite evidence of wrongdoing, the U.S. Department of Justice has allowed the bank to avoid prosecution and pay a $1.9 billion fine. No top HSBC officials will face charges, either. We’re joined by Rolling Stone contributing editor Matt Taibbi, author of “Griftopia: A Story of Bankers, Politicians, and the Most Audacious Power Grab in American History.” “You can do real time in jail in America for all kinds of ridiculous offenses,” Taibbi says. “Here we have a bank that laundered $800 million of drug money, and they can’t find a way to put anybody in jail for that. That sends an incredible message, not just to the financial sector but to everybody. It’s an obvious, clear double standard, where one set of people gets to break the rules as much as they want and another set of people can’t break any rules at all without going to jail.” [includes rush transcript]

    http://www.democracynow.org/2012/12/13/matt_taibbi_after_laundering_800_million

     

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  • Kejriwal Swiss Bank HSBC Details. Nothing New,Yet..?

    Powerhouse: HSBC headquarters in the City of London._jpg.
    Powerhouse: HSBC headquarters in the City of London. The bank has been accused of laundering money for the Mexican mob

    Arvind Kejriwal has come out with his latest expose on Corruption-Chapter 4.

    The earlier expose on Robert Vadra  and Nitin Gadkati raised political storm.

    Robert Vadra made Congress to go on the back-foot unable to drive,pull, hook or get under cover, with DigVijay Singh as the lone cheer leader!

    Ntiin Gadkari affair,more than any body else made LK Advani stutter in defending Gadkari,demanding Gadkari’s resignation by proxy later and BJP is yet tor recover and is in total confusion.

    Godavari Basin died without a whimper.

    Now the expose on Swiss Bank accounts Indians and Indian Companies.

    What is the expose?

    -A source from the Congress gave Kejriwal a list that contains the names of Indians and Indian Companies who have stashed money abroad.

    -The list contains 700 names.

    Companies like Reliance Industries,Jet Airways and Dabur find their Role of Honor.

    -Names include the suspected benamis of Reliance and Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi.

    –HSBC Geneva is involved money laundering operations in India.

    -Government of India has the list.

    In July 2011, Indian Government received a list of roughly 700 people having bank accounts in HSBC, Geneva. The list contains bank balances of these people in 2006,” Kejriwal said.

    Some names from the list.

    Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambai – Rs 100 crores
    Anil Dhirubhai Ambani – Rs 100 crores
    Motech Software Private Ltd (Reliance Group company) – Rs 2,100 crores
    Reliance Industries Ltd – Rs 500 crores
    Sandeep Tandon – Rs 125 crores
    Anu Tandon – Rs 125 crores
    Kokila Dhirubhai Ambani – She has an account but there was no balance on that date
    Naresh Kumar Goyal – Rs 80 crores
    Burmans (3 family members) – Rs 25 crores
    Yashovardhan Birla – no balance.

    Anu Tandon and Sandeep Tandon – former IRS, ED official – who raided Reliance has 125 crores .

    H and his kin are reported to be close to Rahul Gandi and Sonia Gandi.

    -Kejriwal has produced statements given to CBI/IT by two businessmen who were raided by the IT Department.

    That Indian Black Money is in Swiss Banks is nothing new.

    Please read my blog on Rajiv Gandhi2.5 Billion Francs under corruption.

    Figures in the story,does it include Rajiv’s?
    I can not count the zeroes.
    Story:
    The revised Tax treaty between India and Switzerland which will be placed before the Swiss Parliament for final approval is creating nightmares to those tax evaders who have cheated tax to the tune of Billions of Rupees.
    (Weak heart people may skip the below paragraphJ)
    It is believed that an astonishing sum of around 1400 Billion dollars of black money is deposited in Swiss banks by the Indian Tax evaders. This amount is equivalent to   6300000,00,00,000 INR which is about 13 times larger than the country’s foreign debt!!!!.

    Nor is the fact that HSBC launders dirty money .

    “When I read Frederick Forsyth,’s Book ‘The Cobra‘ the money laundering operations were so vivid,as in the case of acquiring a False Passport in ‘The Day of The Jackal‘, I. suspectedHSBC.

    Please read the book , you will know what I mean.

    All International banks which appear to be perfectly legitimate regularly indulge in these activities.

    Despite sound bites nothing may come of this investigation .”

    http://ramanisblog.in/2012/07/13/hsbc-launders-colombian-drug-money/

    (As I said, nothing came of the investigation as yet.)

    The media which went over drive for the other stories are not so  loud now as it was For Godavari basin issue.

    Why?

    Pay masters?

    What is known to those who are literate has now come out to ordinary people who may not be exposed to English Media and Internet.

    The Government needs to answer.

    Some questions.

    Reliance says that HSBC apologized to Mukesh Amnani that it had ‘inadvertently inserted Mukesh Ambani’s Name in the list.

    The Government earlier stated that it colud not divulge the names in the CD given by France because of Double Taxation Clause between the Governments.

    This does not wash well for the Supreme Court in an earlier case relating to the disclosure of Names from Lichtenstein observed that the said agreement does not proscribe the disclosure of names and ordered for the disclosure of names.

    -Those who are now pointed by Kejriwal-none of them deny having an account in a Swiss Bank.

    It it is honest money they should divulge it, at least to clear their names for holding a  Foreign bank account including Swiss Banks is no offence.

    (note the usage of the term Swiss bank, it means any Bank, not necessarily Credit Suisee or any bank that launders Dirty money only)

    HSBC comments ?(provided at the end of the blog).

    HSBC issued an apology that it had ‘inadvertently’ let Mukesh Ambani’s name in  the list.

    If so in which other list is Ambani?

    What list?

    Would the Government publish it?

    Detailed statement explains the modus operandi of HSBC hawala transactions in India to the authorities.

    Why there is no action against HSBC?

    That the nexus of corporate and Politician is bleeding the Country is a fact.

    Let the Government prove it wrong.

    “Neither Reliance Industries Limited nor Mr. Mukesh Ambani have or had any illegitimate accounts anywhere in the world,” the energy conglomerate said on Friday in response to Kejriwal’s latest claim.

    Reliance added the company deals with several global banks, including HSBC.

    “These accounts are fully compliant with all regulations and are disclosed in their appropriate jurisdictions and in India,” the company said.

    A spokesman for Anil Ambani, who is the chairman of Reliance Capital (RLCP.NS) and Reliance Infrastructure (RLIN.NS), said in an email: “Mr. Anil D. Ambani had no bank accounts with HSBC in Geneva.”

    Jet Airways, India’s biggest airline, called Kejriwal’s accusation against its chairman “entirely false.”

    Kejriwal also accused three people affiliated with personal care and food products maker Dabur India (DABU.NS) who he did not identify, of holding such accounts. The company declined to comment.

    HSBC declined to comment on the allegations, but said it “takes compliance with the law, wherever it operates, very seriously.

    http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Reliance-Jet-Airways-deny-Kejriwals-blackmoney-claims/articleshow/17160377.cms

     

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