Commonwealth Games scam - 2010

Commonwealth Games scam - 2010

The Commonwealth games scam as it is known involved large scale misappropriation of money during the preparatory phase and conduct of the 2010 Commonwealth games held in New Delhi. The total value of the scam is estimated to be Rs. 70,000 crore.

Like any other scams it involved politicians, bureaucrats and corporate acting in collusion

Politicians involved

§  Suresh Kalmadi, the Congress party representative to 15 LokSabha from the Pune constituency. He was the Chairman of the Organising Committee of the Delhi Commonwealth games.

§  Sheila Dikshit, Chief minister of Delhi: Was indicted for several irregularities in the CWG processes both by Shunglu committee and also by the CAG

Corporations involved

§  AM Films      * AM Cars   *  SIS Live

§  Jaypee Group, Its alleged that the proceeds of corruption are parked here through financial involvement of Suresh Kalmadi's son, Sumeer Kalmadi in the F1 circuit project at Greater Noida.

§  MTNL                    *  HCL Infosystems

Businessmen involved

§  RSP Sinha, MTNL CMD

§  SM Talwar, Executive director MTNL

§  NK Jain, GM (Corporate Sales) MTNL

§  Jitendra Garg, DGM MTNL

Whistleblowers/ Law enforcers

The scam was unearthed by CAG even before the conduct of the games. Presently the scam is being probed by the CBI.

Scam

The various contracts were manipulated by Kalmadi and team and allegedly misappropriated huge amounts in the process.

Time scoring results system

Kalmadi has been accused of awarding illegal contracts to a Swiss firm for Timing-Scoring-Result system for the Games causing a loss of Rs 95 crore to the exchequer.

Queens baton relay

The Enforcement Directorate is probing the flow of funds and forex during the Queens Baton Relay held in London prior to the Commonwealth Games, apart from investigating the overlays-related works of the Games under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

Broadcast network

CBI registered another case in the Commonwealth Games scam and searched residences of officials of Mahanagar Telecom Nigam Limited, or MTNL, and Noida based HCL Infosystems for allegedly inflating cost of setting up a broadcast network for the Games by nearly Rs 400 crore.

Recruitment to Organising committee

CBI sources lodged Preliminary Enquiry report against unknown persons in the Games organizing body after it received several complaints and references from the Central Vigilance Commission claiming violation of norms in the appointments. They said the complainants alleged involvement of sacked OC Chairman Suresh Kalmadi, who is at present in judicial custody, and his close aides for irregularities in the recruitment process.

Response to scam

§  Kalmadi and Bhanot was sacked from the Organising Commitee by the Sports ministry on Jan 2011

§  Shunglu panel was constituted by Prime minister Manmohan Singh to go into the irregularities in the conduct of the Games.

§  After his arrest on 25 Apr 2011, Suresh kalmadi was suspended by the Indian National Congress

Arrests made

§  TS Darbari and Sanjay Mahindroo was arrested by the CBI on 23 Nov 2010

§  Suresh kalmadi was arrested on 25 Apr 2011 and the next day was sent to eight days police custody.

Conviction

Nil as of 15 Oct 2011.

Coal Mine scam of Manmohan Singh

Coal Mine scam of Manmohan Singh

Another scam from UPA stable. This happened right under the nose of honest PM Manmohan Singh who is not weak or lameduck. Maybe again someone misled him, but the enormity of the corruption surpasses the 2G scam.

In this scam coal blocks to the tune of proven reserves of 21.69 billion tons was given away free to private companies and also middlemen.

§  Manmohan Singh, the Prime minister of India

Scam

This is the tale of 2006-2007 when Shibu Soren was in jail and the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was holding the coal ministry. In this period Dasi Narayan and Santosh Bagdodiya were ministers of state for coal. It was under the Prime minister that the coal ministry gave out the maximum number of captive coal blocks free of cost. The most glaring and blatant fact is that the coal mines were given out free at the lower than nominal cost of Rs. 100 royalty per ton of coal that would be extracted. It was done at a time when the market price of coal was over Rs. 2000 per ton.

Thus, in this period coal blocks to the tune of proven reserves of 21.69 billion tons was given away free to private companies and also middlemen.

The Prime minister Manmohan Singh was the coal minister during this period and all this bungling and embezzlement happened under his very nose, maximum number of blocks were squandered under him only. Manmohan Singh gave away 63 blocks for free. But why did he do so? During these four years (2006-2010) almost 175 blocks were gifted to brokers and capitalists of different shades.

From 1993 to 2010 208 blocks of coal were alloctaed for free. This tantamounts to coal reserves of 49.07 billion tons. Out of the 208 blocks 113 blocks were given to 184 private companies for free. This amounted to coal reserves equal to 21.69 billion tons. If the value of this coal is calculated at the market price of Rs. 2500 per ton, it comes out to 5,382,830.50 Crores. If out of this Rs. 2500, Rs. 1250 is deduced giving space for Rs. 850 as cost of production, transportation etc and Rs. 400 is deduced as profit, then also the country was inflicted a revenue loss of about Rs. 26 Lakh Crores. So this is the ‘Father and Mother of all Scams’. This is surely India’s biggest and scariest scam ever as also perhaps, the biggest ever in any country in the world.

The UPA government squandered the mineral resources of the nation to which all 120 Crore citizens have an equal right. The breath-bating sum of 26 Lakh Crores could have been used for the multitude of deprived and marginalized of this country.

Latter is the job of Sri Prakash Jaiswal who made no amends whatsoever. Till 2003 40 blocks had been allocated. Out of this only 24 have started production. So why have the licenses of the rest of the 16 companies not cancelled? In 2004: 4 blocks were allotted and none has started production. Similarly, in 2005: 22 blcoks were allotted and only 2 have started production. In 2006: 52, 2007: 51, 2008: 22, 2009: 16 and in 2010 0ne block was allotted. But the report till 18th January says that none have started production. So first the government allots coal blocks to private interests. Then keep the Mines and Minerals Act pending in the Parliament, while the embezzlement keeps going on, then when mines allocated to middlemen does not start production (they were not meant to start production at all) then nobody cancels their licenses. Now none needs to be a rocket scientist to see behind the official maze and fathom what went on between the government and middlemen. Had there been no covert collusion and nexus, only 26 out of 208 mines would not be producing.

It is not so that the presence of middlemen in this process is a matter of conjecture; actually a company in Maharashtra which has nothing to do with coal was allotted a free coal block which it sold for Rs. 500 Crores. Pure and simple profit without investing a penny. So the coal blocks were turned into Dalal Street wherein coal was bought and sold like shares with no accruing benefits to the people of India.

Response

BJP has demanded investigation as of July 2011, more to be seen.

Boeing USA- Air India Scam

Boeing USA- Air India Scam

A scam where alleged kickbacks were payed by Boeing USA for the Air India deal worth 230 USD  million. The kickbacks were routed through Hasan Ali Khan, the notorious benami for many politicians in India.

People involved

§  Jagdish Tytler, then Civil Aviation minister

§  Hasan Ali Khan

§  Kashinath Tapuriah

Corporates

§  Boeing Commercial Airplane Co

§  Air India

§  RM Investments & Trading Co, a firm owned by Tapuriah

Scam

Hasan Ali Khan, said to be the country's biggest tax evader, had made a killing as a consultant when he had earned a commission of US $ 11.5 million for a Boeing deal with Air India in 1986-87. At the exchange rate then, the amount works out to over Rs 14 crore.

This startling information is part of a 2007 Enforcement Directorate (ED) Case Information Report filed as an annexure in the 1000-plus-page charge sheet filed recently by the ED in a special court under the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act against Khan and his associate Kashinath Tapuriah.

The civil aviation minister at that time was Jagdish Tytler. The report says that as consultants of Boeing Commercial Airplane Co, Seattle, USA, an amount of US $ 11.5 million was earned as commission from the sale of two Boeing 727 aircraft to Air India in 1986-87. The deal was worth US $ 230 million.

The charge sheet mentions that the amount was not repatriated to India by RM Investments & Trading Co, a firm owned by Tapuriah. The charge sheet, however, does not specify who among the accused earned the commission.

There are clear-cut indications of corruption money involved in mega transactional deals representing commissions (which appear to be illegal) received on sale of Boeing Aircrafts held by Air India. It involves loss to the exchequer, the ED has said.

The transactions, according to the ED, are part of a series of transactions that involve several violations of the Indian Banking Law as well as an effort to manipulate the business contacts with criminal intent of stashing unaccounted assets in Switzerland, a tax haven.

The ED also stated that from the report received from the additional director of income-tax, Mumbai, it was clear that returns of income or returns of net wealth were not filed by Hasan Ali Khan, his wife Rheema Khan, Faizal Abbas, and their involvement in more than $ 8 billion of laundered money was clear; the money was supposed to be stashed away in UBS, Zurich, as confirmed by the confirmation letter dated December 12, 2006, permitting withdrawal of $ 6 billion.

The report also points out at a sudden increase in Khan's bank deposits in 2006. "The increase in bank deposits maintained in UBS Bank, Zurich, from US$6.62 billion as on August 31, 2006 to US$8 billion as on December 8, 2006 is showing an exceptionally high increase of more than $1.38 billion in less than four months, the report said.

The ED further alleged that Khan had purchased several high-value properties in cash and suspected them to be the proceeds of crime. This includes flats in affluent parts of Mumbai and Pune and a property at Akbar Manzil, Hyderabad, and a hotel Chateau Gutsch in Switzerland purchased for approximately $ 25 million in 2001. Others of Khans cash purchases include a fleet of cars, including two Mercedes and a Porsche, and 15-20 horses valued at several lakhs of rupees. The report also lists a huge amount cash and jewellery worth crores that were recovered during income-tax department searches.

Hasan Ali Khan was the person who has strong links with Sonia Gandhi through Ahmed Patel (Sonia’s Political Advisor). So the investigations are slow. Hasan Ali Khan controls Sonia’s illegal money and invest it different foreign Banks.

Investigation

No specific investigation was launched into the kickback and the conspiracy involved. Infact the scam came to light only when the Supreme court compelled Enforcement Directorate to go after Hasan Ali Khan.

Prosecution             :           Nil

Conviction               :           Nil

Goa Chief Minister’s iron ore mining scam

Goa Chief Minister’s iron ore mining scam

The Indian state of Goa has been hit by revelations of unauthorized iron ore mining, with claims that at least one third of all exports of the mineral last year were extracted illegally. The alleged fraud, detailed in a report implicating senior politicians, police, government officials and the mining lobby, is thought to have cost the local economy 40 billion rupees ($800 million) in the last five years.

Some 18 to 20 million tonnes of the record total 54 million tonnes exported in the last financial year was illegally mined, according to the committee, which said there had been breaches in nearly half of all mining licences.

The illegally exported ore is estimated to have been worth 11 billion rupees while the unpaid duty totalled some 1.2 billion rupees.

Goa chief minister Digambar Kamat's ruling Congress party have rubbished the widely leaked report, claiming it is biased because the committee chairman also leads the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Kamat has denied any wrongdoing and told the assembly last week: "Ultimately the truth will prevail because there are records to support it. We have not exceeded the environment clearance limits."

But those dependent on mining fear for their livelihoods. The total economy of the state would collapse if the mining industry is stopped. Mining is Goa's second-largest industry and the biggest employer after tourism, employing 75,000 people directly and in related services, particularly transport. Nearly half of India's total iron ore exports come from Goa.

Demand for the low-grade mineral found inland from Goa's famous beaches took off in 2005, with fast-growing China a major recipient alongside steel-producing countries such as Japan and South Korea. About 10 billion rupees a year are paid in royalties by companies mining government-owned land in Goa, while export duties contribute 40 billion rupees annually to the exchequer. The public accounts committee is calling for the federal Central Bureau of Investigation to probe the alleged fraud. 

Scam of Adarsh Society flat

Scam of Adarsh Society flat

Set up supposedly with the aim of “accommodating and rewarding the heroes of the Kargil operation and those who had laid down their lives for the protection of the motherland,” if one looks at the initial list of society members of the Adarsh Co-operative Housing Society, it comprised 40 members and included mostly defence personnel. Now the list stands at 103, out of which only 37 members belong to the army and just three members have anything to do with the Kargil war.

The  beneficiaries of the scam involving allotment of flats in the Adarsh Co-operative Housing Society in Colaba. Four former Chief Ministers — Ashok Chavan, Vilasrao Deshmukh, Sushilkumar Shinde and Narayan Rane — all of whom have been, ironically enough, potential contenders for Chavan’s post and at some point served as the sanctioning authority for the project, also stand accused of owning flats under ‘benami’ names in Adarsh.

Deshmukh, who is currently the union minister for heavy industries, reportedly owns three apartments — each one a 3-BHK of 1,076 sq ft carpet area — on the 15th floor. The flats (1502, 1503 and 1504) are in the names of Uttam Ghakare, Kiran Bhadange and Amol Kharbari — real or fictitious individuals whose relationship with Deshmukh is not clear.

Union power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde is said to own a 3-BHK flat in the name of Major NW Khankhoje, while former state revenue minister Shivajirao Patil Nilengakar allegedly owns two flats in the name of Dr Arun V Dawle and Sampat R Khidse (flat no 2602).

The Adarsh gravy train has more members on board: Maharashtra revenue minister Narayan Rane too is accused of owning two 3-BHK flats on the 17th floor, in the name of Girish Pravinchandra Mehta and Rupali

The project had been approved by Chavan himself in 2002 when he was the revenue minister. Deshmukh, as the then CM, had given the initial permissions for the construction of Adarsh Society, while Shinde, when he was the CM in 2004, gave the final sanction for the project.

Meanwhile, two of Chavan’s relatives who had been allotted flats in Adarsh, his sister-in-law Seema Sharma and brother-in-law Madanlal Sharma, resigned from the society on Friday. Chavan’s mother-in-law Bhagwati Sharma was also a member of the society, but she passed away earlier this year.

The Adarsh hall of shame
Some of the bureaucrats and politicians who are accused of fraudulently obtaining flats for themselves or their relatives:
Ashok Chavan, Ex-chief minister, Maharashtra Jairaj Phatak, ex-municipal commissioner (flat in the name of his son Kanishka J Phatak) Ramanand Tiwari, state information commissioner (in the name of son, Onkar Tiwari) Suresh Prabhu, Shiv Sena (own name) Pradeep Vyas, ex-collector, Mumbai ( in the name of his wife and fellow IAS officer Seema Vyas) Jitender Awhad, NCP (own name) Indris Kundan, ex-collector, Mumbai (own name)

Kanhaiyalal Gidwani, Congress (along with 2 sons, Kailash and Amit) Uttam Khobragade, BEST GM (in the name of daughter, Devyani, an Indian Foreign Service official) Babasaheb Kupekar, Congress (own name) DK Sankaran, Ex-chief secretary (in the name of daughter, Devyani) Shriniwas Patil, NCP (own name)
CS Sangitrao, ex-collector, suburban (in the name of son, Ranjit
Krishnarao Patil, Congress SC Deshmukh, Collector, Pune (own name) Arun Pawar, ex-income tax commissioner (own name)
PV Deshmukh, secretary, urban development (own name).

Scams of Jaganmohan Reddy S/o. YRS Reddy (Late Andhra Chief Minister, Congress)

Scams of Jaganmohan Reddy 

S/o. YRS Reddy (Late Andhra Chief

Minister, Congress)

Surprisingly 2 companies with different directors and shareholders share the exact same registered address 
Amritdham Suite No. 5 & 6, Nityanand Nagar, Bakultala,Howrah 711109, they also have the same auditor T N DATTA and sons who incidentally is the auditor for two more calcutta companies known for extreme honesty Austral coke and Gremach infra  The directors of both companies though are completely different 

Jagati publications was incorporated in Jan 2006. In 2007 and 2008 14 unknown loss making companies including stocknet and artelligence bio made investments of 45 crores in Jagati publications ie they bought shares for 45 crores 

"Under the guise of buying shares, they have paid kickbacks to Jagan," alleges TDP President N. Chandrababu Naidu. "Otherwise, how else can Jagati Publications allot shares at such high premium within months of incorporation?" 

In 2008, auditing firm Deloitte estimated the worth of the publications, which owns the powerful 26-edition Telugu newspaper chain Sakshi with a total circulation of 12 lakh copies, at Rs 3,500 crore. It is odd that the balance sheets of 14 companies which invested Rs 42.56 crore in 2007 and 2008 in Jagati show an accumulated loss of Rs 68.95 lakh. 

The main ones - Stocknet International and Artillegence Bio Innovation-are listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the other 12 are shareholders in the 2 listed companies ......their total accumulated loss (net worth)is nearly 70 lakhs yet they had 45 crores to invest in Jaati Publications (owner of Sakshi newspapers and Sakshi channel ) 

These include Delton Exim Pvt. Ltd, Kirti Electro Systems, Bay Inland Finance, Bhaskar Fund Management Ltd, Cliftons Pearson Export and Agencies Ltd, Ganga Builders Ltd, Ispat Sheets Ltd, Gromore Fund Management Company Ltd, New Outlook Securities, Super Finance Ltd, Shakti Ispat Production Pvt. Ltd and Shivalaxmi Exports Ltd. 

Interestinly Laffan software and Conrad Telefilms 2 of the 4 Assam based companies banned by SEBI from accessing the market also held a stake in artelligence bio in 2008 

The bank accounts of these companies are in the Gol Park branch of HDFC Bank and the Baliganj branch of the South Indian Bank Ltd in Kolkata.

Several of these firms have been or are being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India for unfair trade practices and fraud.

CBI freezes Jagan’s bank accounts

The CBI on Aug 19, 2011, Friday frozen operation of 25 bank accounts in HDFC and ICICI belonging to some companies under question and also the Jagati publications. 

They said the search operations continued in many offices and documents and computer hard disks were secured for examination and processing.

“We have also seized several mobile SIM cards found in the possession of corporate officials of Jagati publications besides that of Bharati Cements and Hetero Drugs,” said a source in the CBI.

V V Lakshminarayana, the joint director of the CBI, heading the investigations said the search operations might last a few more days as they were yet to question officials of several other companies involved with the Y S Jagan and EMAAR deals.

The CBI continued raids on the offices of a mining company at Bayyaram in Khammam district and also that of Harita Fertilizers in Nalgonda town belonging to Ravindranath Reddy, a cousin of YSR.

As the CBI drive continued for the second day at the offices of Jagan’s homes in Kadapa, Pulivendula and also offices at Mumbai and Delhi, advocates of Jagan made a vain bid to procure a copy of the FIR filed in the court.

The CBI drive on Kadapa MP Y S Jaganmohan Reddy has taken the wind out of the rebel Congress legislators supporting him.

Stunned by the search and seizure operation on Jagan’s properties and that of several industrialists who invested in his companies, the 20-odd  Congress MLAs and MPs met at the office of the YSR Congress here on Friday.

India’s Black money in foreign countries

India’s Black money in foreign countries

Black money refers to funds earned on the black market, on which income and other taxes have not been paid. The total amount of black money deposited in foreign banks by Indians is unknown, but one estimate by R Vaidyanathan, a Professor of Finance, estimated the total at over Rs 7,280,000 Crores (US$1.4 trillion).

Black money in Swiss banks

While official numbers are not available, Swiss banking officials have said that the largest depositors of illegal foreign money in Switzerland are Indian.

 In August 2010, the government revised the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement to provide means for investigations of black money in Swiss banks. This revision, expected to become active by January 2012, will allow the government to make inquiries of Swiss banks in cases where they have specific information about possible black money being stored in Switzerland.

Court cases

In January 2011 the Supreme Court of India asked why the names of those who have stashed money in the Liechtenstein Bank have not been disclosed.  The court argued that the government should be more forthcoming in releasing all available information on what it called a "mind-boggling" amount of money that is believed to be held illegally in foreign banks.

Tax Information Exchange Agreement

To curb black money, India has signed TIEA with 10 countries - Bahamas, Bermuda, the British Virgin islands, the Isle of Man, the Cayman Island, the British island of Jersey, Monaco, St. Kitts and Nevis, Argentina and the Marshal Islands - where money is believed to have been stashed away.

Prominent cases

In April 2011, Hasan Ali Khan was arrested on charges of stashing over Rs. 36,000 crore in foreign banks. He is the person of Sonia Gandhi’s Political Advisor Ahmed Patel. 

India topping the list with almost $1500 Billion black money in swiss banks, followed by Russia $470 Billion, UK $390 Billion, Ukraine $100 Billion and China with $96 Billion.

It’s embarrassing for any country to top the list of black money holders. The money which belongs to the nation and it’s citizens, is stashed in the illegal personal accounts of corrupt politicians, IRS, IPS officers and industrialists. An amount which is 13 times larger than the nation’s foreign debt. Every year this amount is increasing at a rapid speed but the Indian government seems to be silent over this matter from a very long time. The total black money accounts for 40% of GDP of India, if all the money comes back to India then that could result in huge growth burst for India.

A nation where more than 450 million live below the poverty line, which means they make less than $1.25/day and could probably use an easy cash advances from somebody. By bringing back the black money back to the country there is so much which can be done for the development of the nation and the people who live below poverty line. India will also be able to clear all their foreign debts in 24Hrs. Even if all the taxes are abolished, the government can maintain the country easily for 30 years.

It’s been found that about 80 thousand people travel to Switzerland every year of which around 25 thousand travel frequently. Those travelling on regular basis must be doing it for some reason.

The Supreme Court in India ordered to Central Government to take serious steps to get the money back to India which is stashed in Swiss banks. They should work to find out the names of account holders in Swiss banks and also pressurize Swiss bank to get the black money back to the country. This has also become a matter of pride of nation and if the Congress led Manmohan Singh government still keeps silence about this issue then they will only be making themselves a laughing stock for the entire world.

A new report released by Global Financial Integrity (GFI), states that illicit financial flows from India between 2000-2008 were approximately $104 billion ie. 4800000000000 (Rs. 4.8 lakh crore).

This report has coincidentally come at a time when Supreme Court has clearly given instructions to authorities to disclose the names of Indians with money deposited in foreign banks, renewing the interest in bringing back Indian money stashed in foreign accounts.

To be honest, the figure might be much higher that what the report reveals, but just to give you a perspective of reported figure, it is more than 10 times the total allocation to education in 2010-11.

One of the interesting aspects of the report is that India is 15^th in the overall list which is headed by China which has cumulative illicit outflows in region of 2.18 trillion. If you see most of the top countries are oil producing nations !

There is no doubt that Government needs to take strict action against these black money hoarders, unfortunately the problem is – Government itself comprises of people who run this black economy and benefit from it ! There are rumors that UPA Chairperson & Congress President Mrs. Sonia Gandhi’s family has deposited huge amounts of black money in foreign countries. So the Indian Government didn’t take any strong action against black money in foreign accounts and bringing back to country.

On a lighter note, with the kind of numbers we are talking it has become imperative for us to adopt new accounting terminology for Black Money. This has been making rounds on Social Media sites

New Accounting Terminology

§  1 Cr = 1 Khoka

§  500 Cr = 1 Koda

§  1,000 Cr = 1 Radia

§  10,000 Cr = 1 Kalmadi

§  1,00,000 Cr = 1 Raja

§  10 Kalmadi + 1 Raja = 1 Pawar