“‘Politicians, businessmen and film stars route black money through hawala to ensure that the money is not taxed. Most hawala operators work with the blessings of the ISI. The spy agency then uses the information to blackmail Indian politicians each time probe agencies try to unearth details of such deals,’ said the IB official.” – Vicky Nanjappa
Pakistan’s spy agency Inter Services Intelligence has been blackmailing some prominent politicians in India over their involvement in shady money laundering deals, according to reports by security agencies.
Shocking as this piece of information may seem, Indian intelligence agencies have, for some time, been aware of the hold the ISI has on our political leaders.
These politicians, on the prodding of the spy agency, often hamper investigations into terror strikes orchestrated by the latter, rue security agencies.
Colonel R S N Singh, a former official of the Research and Analysis Wing, has observed that there are enough reasons to believe that several politicians in India are being blackmailed by the ISI and Lashkar-e-Tayiba founder Hafiz Saeed because of their hawala links.
After the Bombay (Mumbai) serial blasts in 1993, the Union home ministry had made a list of politicians who had allegedly sought the help of terrorists and underworld dons to carry out their hawala transactions, according to a source in the ministry.
A report by the home ministry had stated that Choksi, a racketeer involved in the high-profile Jain hawala case, had helped some politicians in Maharashtra transfer Rs 72 crore, said the source.
But the scourge of hawala-tainted money is not limited only to politicians from Maharashtra.
Recent intelligence inputs suggest that some politicians in Kerala have been stashing away a large amount of money through hawala.
“The shady operatives who help politicians stash away their ill-gotten wealth are the same ones who raise funds for terror attacks in India. Often, they work under the control of the ISI and the agency indirectly accrues information about corrupt politicians in India to further its own devious agenda,” said an official of the Intelligence Bureau.
“I will not be surprised if large sums of money belonging to politicians change hands and anti-social elements get a whiff of it,” said C D Sahay, former chief of RAW.
V Balachandran, another former official of the RAW, pointed out that in spite of such allegations making the rounds of security agencies for the last 20 years, no meaningful probe has been initiated to get to the truth of the matter.
Politicians have used hawala transactions to park money received via bribes and other immoral ways for scores of years. Their money has changed hands via operatives in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia.
“Hawala operators help both politicians and businessmen transfer large sums of money to untraceable foreign account, often in Swiss banks,” said an official of the IB.
The Jain Hawala scam, which had pulled in many leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party with its tentacles, was allegedly worth $18 million.
Intelligence reports had suggested that some of the amount was used to support Kashmir-based militant groups like the Hizbul Mujahideen.
“Politicians, businessmen and film stars route black money through hawala to ensure that the money is not taxed. Most hawala operators work with the blessings of the ISI. The spy agency then uses the information to blackmail Indian politicians each time probe agencies try to unearth details of such deals,” said the official.
Since an obscene amount of money is involved in such transactions, politicians can go to any length to hide their corrupt practices, said the IB official.
Such leaders, he said, won’t even hesitate to scuttle a probe into a terror strike, if urged to do so by the ISI.
In the last 25 years, an unbelievable Rs 73 lakh crore is believed to have been siphoned off by hawala transactions.
In just four years — between 2002 and 2006 — black money worth Rs 6,92,328 crore has made its way out of India to various Swiss banks and tax havens, thanks to the ISI’s pet hawala operators. – Rediff, 6 January 2014
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Filed under: india | Tagged: BJP, black money, bribery, corruption, globalisation, hawala, INC, india, indian black money, indian intelligence agencies, indian politicians, indian politics, ISI, politics, psychological warfare, security agencies, swiss banks |
BHARATA BHARATI 
India is doomed and the Indian SEZs are doomed.
• The pathetic state of the exports from the SEZ is assessed by the number of non-operative units and the poor capacity utilisation of the SEZ units – information about which is in public and national interest
• The laqck of planning of the GOI is highlighted by the fact that the GOI has done no benchmarking of the operations of the SEZ per se, and the SEZ units within – for each sector with comparable peers,in India or the global competition
• If a sector, say X,exists in a SEZ in a specific maritime geography and its global export hub,is in Country A, and the GOI has not been benchmarking the operating parameters of the Indian SEZ and the SEZ units of that sector (X),every 3 years – then the SEZ units in sector X,in India,will definitely cease to exist,or be in a state of terminal decline or exist at the mercy of competitors
• With the miserable performance of the Indian Rupee,and its impact of reduction in Dollarised Rupee costs payable to the SEZ authority by the SEZ units – why are the exports from the SEZs still a failure? In addition, in several sectors, the rupee costs paid by the SEZ units to the SEZ Authority,are not the determinant for operating and financial viability of the SEZ units
• In essence,the GOI has utterly failed to provide a level playing field to Indian exporters,in terms of admin costs,operating cost neutrality,financing costs,effective logistics costs and fiscal red tape and procedures
• The centres of manufacturing excellence near SEZs (For CMT/Job work/Material and Labour sourcing) are not cost effective – as there is no synergy between the SEZ and the Industrial planning and policy
• The strategy of the GOI is highlighted by the fact that the GOI has engaged no 3rd party to analyse the inefficiency of the operating parameters of SEZs and the SEZ units within the SEZ – for each sector within it , with comparable peers in India,and the global competition
• What planning and strategy will the GOI do,if it has no formal analysis of the specific operating costs,parameters,management and other issues,which explain the dismal state of the SEZ units by sector,scale and management quality
• The dismal state of the GOI planning is that it has not properly planned the sector profile of the units in each SEZ, to ensure that the right sectors are in the appropriate geography,in the right SEZ,to minimise the net logistics costs on the EXIM chain, and minimise the inward material logistics costs – considering the future dislocations in inward and external material sources and options of transhipment and alternative export markets
• Several SEZs elsewhere invest limited equity in SEZ units and common service providers,like banks,facilities,hotels,accounting firms etc,as a demonstration of their stake in the SEZ and their strategic inputs in the planning and operation of the same – which is then used to lower the lease charges – which is completely absent in India
• All of the above is to be seen in light of the fact that the SEZ has no data of the financial or operating performance of the SEZ units,loss making units or even the financial and operating performance of the Developers of the SEZ – and is naturally not concerned with the losses or the financial performance of the SEZ units therein
• The peculiar pattern of CMT and Job workers of key sectors such as Gold and Diamond jewellers,with multiple movement of stocks at different processors o/s the SEZ – is not the norm for Gems and Jewellery SEZs or SEZ units – and represents an abnormal industrial agglomeration with a planned and structural dislocation in manufacturing and processing operations – which cannot be solely for the purposes of manufacturing and commercial efficiency.
• Information on raids and prosecutions is critical especially in sectors with high import duties (on merit mode) for inputs,customised finished goods (wherein DRI/Customs cannot assess over invoicing),frequent movements to and from 3rd party processors (which makes the case for wastages and losses in SION and disappearing materials), materials where the EXIM transit time is a few hours and the logistics costs are less than 1per cent of CIF/FOB rates, inputs and outputs with marked differences in rates of different grades of items and offgrades,warehousing artificial losses,amortisable costs ,bad debts and write offs in select SEZs (to be used for 3rd party exports or mergers to obviate tax on SEZ profits),items where the SEZ units are well aware of the sampling and test checks of the DRI and Customs at the SEZ for the inputs and outputs etc.
• The Gems and Jewellery industry is run by cartels from a particular community spread from Western India to North America,EU,East Asia,West Asia and Africa and is a well coordinated money laundering and smuggling operation from the state of rough diamonds and raw gold,to the marketing of jewellery and warehousing of processed and raw diamonds,the banking chain,raters and the chain of associate and front companies – which is all the more insidious,as all the data with DRI/ED/Customs/Interpol used by the Indian State for surveillance all originated from the overseas counterparts and partners of the Indian traders located in India (who are in many cases – in spirit the same de facto entity owners)
• The premise that Indians are the least cost labour source for the jwellery sector and their informal working style (w/o documentation,using informal labour and in slum style conditions) is an innovative marvel of Indian genius,is a pathetic deception,and the entire array of fiscal and monetary sops for this sector (including SEZ) allows the sector to generate financial buffers via money laundering,tax arbitrage,treasury operations, merchanting exports,accomodation financing ,cash financing, alternative fund transfers,FX speculation,leveraging double and layered financing,defrauding Indian Merchant exporters such as STC and MMTC,Credit insurance fraud etc. which provide the sector a pricing edge in overseas markets ( via illegal,nefarious and fraudulent means)
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“In the last 25 years, an unbelievable Rs 73 lakh crore is believed to have been siphoned off by hawala transactions.”
“Politicians, businessmen and film stars route black money through hawala to ensure that the money is not taxed. Most hawala operators work with the blessings of the ISI. The spy agency then uses the information to blackmail Indian politicians each time probe agencies try to unearth details of such deals,” said the official.”
The blackmailing gets further extended by the officials and the news media! And the common man or AmAdhmi is very very happy with reading/hearing the news!!
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Wonderful Info…Thanks for enlightening us!
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