ED lodge money laundering case against Speak Asia
Earlier this evening it was observed that the Supreme Court had received former Justice Ramesh Lahoti’s report following the conclusion of the Lahoti Committee.
Setting a hearing date of January 9th, many Speak Asia panelists have deluded themselves into thinking this is some kind of final judgement on the business operations of Speak Asia.
Whilst it is true that the particulars of the Solomon James writ 383 petition do mention a restart of business operations, the fact of the matter is that a petition filed by a civilian, even in the Supreme Court, is not simply going to override months of criminal investigation into Speak Asia.
The fruits of such investigations we are only beginning to see.
In what I believe is the first formal criminal charge laid against Speak Asia, after booking Speak Asia for money laundering back in late November, yesterday on Tuesday the 3rd of January, the ED formally lodged a money laundering case against Speak Asia.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday registered a case against Speak Asia, a Singapore-based online survey company, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in connection with a multi-level marketing scam
With the EOW investigation progressing nicely (the latest development being computers belonging to Speak Asia officials and associates being sent away for forensic analysis), and the IT department having also stated that Speak Asia are guilty of tax evasion, it’s clear that the ED money laundering case is just the beginning.
At this early stage complete details of the ED case against Speak Asia and any resulting court action is unclear, but one thing is certain:
You’ve got to be pretty delusional if you think the Supreme Court is going to allow the largest ponzi scheme in Indian history to restart business operations and process money transfers. Even moreso now that there are official charges laid against the company for money laundering.
Here’s hoping the other agencies conclude their own individual investigations and file their respective charges against Speak Asia, sooner rather than later.
Meanwhile on the 5th of January, Speak Asia go toe to toe against the EOW in the Raigad (writ 3210) and Thane (writ 3211) Districts of the Mumbai High Court. In these two writs, Speak Asia seek to stop the EOW from continuing their criminal investigation into the company.
…what a joke those hearings are going to be.
Oz.,
When ED booked SpeakAsia? On November 20th Or in the month of October itself?
Or they booked yesterday i.e., Jan 3rd?
From which sources they have got the news?
Can you please tell me exact date when ED has booked the case?
As per Hindustan Times it is in the month of Nov Or it might be one month before that (i.e. in Oct).
As per CNN IBN it is on Tuesday 3rd of Jan.
Which one is correct as per your point of analysis?
They booked them in November 2011 (internal) and have filed a case in January 2012. A case now presumably means there’s criminal related legal action for Speak Asia to answer.
I’d say the ED, seeing as it’s their case.
Meanwhile Manoj Kumar puts out a YouTube video with a bunch of claims backed by nothing, and you’re standing there mouth open ready to give him the credibility blowjob…
Having trouble reading? And what’s analysis got to do with it, these are events which are happening.
Oz… that was a bit uncalled for.
I think Ritesh is asking why would ED announce that it has booked / registered SpeakAsia under the same act TWICE, once in October 2011 and now again in January 2012. We don’t have enough details to be sure.
You have one explanation: first one is internal to ED, and January is the formal filing of charges in court. I personally think they are preparing multiple charges of money laundering, or perhaps this is an amendment.
Sometimes ya gotta use tough love. I find the difference in accountability panelists have for government agencies and Speak Asia irritating at times.
Speak Asia could tell them the sky was purple and they’d be writing letters to the government demanding to know why there’s some giant conspiracy against the company to keep the sky blue.
When a government agency accuses the company of money laundering though, ‘oh no, that can’t be. What’s your source? The ED?! Ha! They’re just jealous and are going to launch their own MLM survey company tommorow!‘
Of course Speak Asia’s members will try to pass this off as ‘unity’ but let’s just call it what it is, idiocy.
The ED didn’t announce a case back in November, just the fact that they’d booked them (which to me sounds like they’ve decided there’s a case).
Do need more information though, as I’m not sure if there’s a seperate body you have to ‘book’ a company for money laundering before you file a case or something in India.
I’m starting to think I’ll know about the Indian legal system then Australia’s by the time this is all done!
Another fear-mongering rumor was in one of the other topics… that the Indian government will use the “tax evasion” excuse to take all of SAOL’s money and panelists won’t get a penny.
Wonder who’s spreading that vicious rumor? (hint: who has the most to gain from this rumor?)
I Firmly Belive that media which showing Speak news are showing paid news as moneylife.
If saol is fraud then why they are fighting for they can easily run away very simple although they have done technical violence of Indian low but they r not fraud as per saol Are Speakasia management illiterate too , to fight against agency when they know they r running spongy scheme.
Really same on behindmlm and other media persone with knowing true they r talking abt it even i don’t know true.. let court decide that
Oz.,
You haven’t answered any of my questions properly, i have asked you – which one is correct news?
Why media showing two dates as both same news, proof you have given yourself in the above article – both the links of CNN IBN news & HindustanTimes news a long time back.
The timing of the news is another catch, whenever some happy news comes for this members, immediately negative news will be released by this media, I’ve seen that from the start of that company’s Goa expo program, anyhave as usual & as expected no media channel has focused or showed about the latest supreme court’s order.
If they want to show the actual news they need to show them and can criticize telling what supreme court will tell.. Otherwise can announce Supreme Court will tell only negative things against the company. Anyhave everything is well understood and confirmed now..!
This is your own blog and it’s not compulsory for you to act or to show up the true face of media what everyone is seeing outside, who knows may be you might be the member to give news for news as previously stated in newspaper that EOW has taken the help of Behind MLM.
Starting from the start -you have kept maintained attacking the company and supporting all media news against the company and also supporting the acts of EOW.
For all the questions whenever asked you have maintained replying intelligently stating whoever doing or taking action against the company where good persons. Remaining people are bad persons whoever supports the company, well well – there’s no use to write in your blog as well as no use to comment in your blog after seeing all yor answers for my questions in which I’ve found nothing except useless Oz’s style of answering questions without any truth and fact.
I might be happy if at least these people get back their money from the court (I’m not asking your answer or opinion for this point here, it was my personal wish).
Good Bye!
@ Satish
but after the revelation that top management of SAOL has invested millions in real estate in India, I have an answer.
From their previous successful frauds like Admatrix and Myfreephone they got such a confidence that they started investing the money here in India itself. Thinking that they will never be caught.
But this time the unprecedented growth of the company caught everyone’s attention and they landed up in this situation. Now just to protect their assets they are fighting the law.
Also remember another 100 crore or so seized by the banks. Now put yourself in such a situation where your 100 crore illegal money is seized by the authorities. won’t you fight them even if you have 1% probability of getting the money back.
Also remember the corrupt authorities, corrupt government and blah blah blah which the SAOL members put in their discussion. May be greasing the palms of some of the corrupt authorities may get their money back.
so its all the game of all these ‘May Be’………..
Nithya, you strike me as someone with a limited capacity for intelligence who is easily led, possibly even mentally disabled.
Both are. One was the booking for money laundering and the other the official registering of a case. You’ll have to directly contact the ED to establish what their formal procedures and policies are in dealing with corporate money laundering cases.
The latest order is what, ‘list the case on January 9th’? How is that even a news story?I note that in mere listing of a hearing date you’ve already assumed is ‘happy news’ for Speak Asia panelists.
This is an extremely simplistic kindergarten’esque approach to the current environment surrounding Speak Asia. It is not an accurate reflection of the tone of discussion on here.
I suggest you refrain from confusing your own personal motives and agendas with the actual purpose and function of this site.
It’s only going to end in tears (for you).
Paid by who? The media can’t just invent stories about the ED charging Speak Asia with money laundering.
But please, don’t let me get in the way of your conspiracy theories. I am a paid agent, the EOW are paid agents, the media are paid agents, if next Monday the SC hand down a ruling that is anything short of ‘Speak Asia will pay everyone and resume business operations tommorow’ then they and Justice Lahoti are paid agents yada yada yada.
Welcome to the cult of Speak Asia.
And what lead you to this belief? Seems every newspaper in India have published such news. Are you claiming this conspiracy is India wide?
This neither proves nor disproves. It can be restated as
1) SAOL is fighting
2) The guilty will not fight
therefore:
3) SAOL is innocent
However, 2) is a false statement. Many guilty people hire lawyers to fight. American “OJ Simpson” is one prime example (who was actually acquitted of 2 murders). Or if you want more recent example, Conrad Murray, the doctor who “killed” Michael Jackson, had no less than FOUR attorneys trying to defend him. He was still found guilty of manslaughter.
Thus, your logic is faulty.
The management’s intelligence (or lack of) does not change the fact that EOW, ED, RBI, CID, IT, and possibly other departments in India are investigating them as a possible scam, and every report released by CID, EOW, and so on indicates that they are succeeding. All this is according to your newspapers, quoting officials in EOW, ED, CID, and so on.
Court will decide whether SAOL is guilty of criminal fraud under Indian law. However, the court’s decision (yet to be rendered) does not change the facts that support the ultimate conclusion: SpeakAsia is a giant Ponzi scheme disguised as survey.
Your position can be essentially stated as
1) SAOL has been accused of a crime
2) Accused are presumed innocent until convicted
therefore
3) SAOL is innocent
While your logic is a bit better this time, you are fundamentally avoiding the real issue. We are not here to debate whether SAOL is criminally innocent or guilty. That is up to your courts.
We are here to debate whether SAOL is a ponzi scheme, and thus far, all evidence (not supplied by SAOL) points that way. The only evidence supporters of SAOL can supply in opposition are
* blind faith (I believe therefore it is true)
* unsupported statements (someone said so, with no proof)
* faulty logic (if they’re guilty they wouldn’t be fighting)
* and other similar bad excuses
ED announce investigation – http://businesstoday.intoday.in/story/ed-to-probe-financial-set-up-of-speak-asia/1/16476.html (Business Today, June 21st 2011)
ED charge Speak Asia with money laundering and ‘book’ the company – http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/Mumbai/Speak-Asia-charged-with-money-laundering/Article1-771556.aspx (Hindustan Times, November 20th 2011)
ED lodge a formal case against Speak Asia for money laundering – http://ibnlive.in.com/news/money-laundering-case-against-speak-asia/217517-3.html (IBN Live, January 3rd 2012)
The above article was also syndicated at Zee News India – http://zeenews.india.com/news/maharashtra/money-laundering-case-against-speak-asia_750193.html
Terminology aside, looks like a natural progression to me (investigate –> book –> charge).
Oz, that definitely is uncalled for. People in cognitive dissonance (trying to deconflict two sets of information in conflict, and clearly both can’t be true) are already confused enough. If you antagonize them you will achieve the wrong effect, and feed into their us-vs-them paranoia.
@Ritesh — I do have to point out a few problems in your statements
They were written by two different newspapers. We don’t have enough details to make assertions. However, there’s no doubt that ED has a case against SpeakAsia on money laundering, and is proceeding with further investigation.
I am not sure what you hope to suggest by pointing out the slightly conflicting dates. The fact that there are two dates doesn’t change the fact that ED has charged SAOL with money laundering.
What is this “some happy news” that you are referring to? Are you ASSUMING that the upcoming Supreme Court decision will be “happy news”? Please don’t. You’ll be setting yourself up to be disappointed. Stay neutral.
Also keep in mind… “upcoming court date” is not a news event. The actual decision itself, announced, is a news event (whether positive or negative).
Newspaper does not exist to provide what *you* consider to be ‘balanced’ coverage. Newspaper simply reports the news. It is up to us, each individual, to weigh the newsitem’s effect on us. What may be positive to you may be negative to me, and vice versa.
Thus, claiming news media is “biased” is a fundamentally flawed and illogical position.
You’ve evidently got a lot more patience than I do!
It’s been a long seven months since this all started…
@ Satish …
Well they’ve already ran off. Haren Kaur, Manoj Kumar, etc etc are all absconding…. You are still living in dream world
Besides fighting in court doesn’t prove innocence. As per Indian Law, every criminal has his right to defend himself. In certain case where the defendant cannot afford a lawyer, the Govt will provide one free of cost.
And as Chang had earlier stated that if Speakasia every had the intention to pay money to panelist, there are million other ways. Also the Lahoti commission is due to a writ petition filed by senior panelist and not Speakasia.
Also if you believe AISPA is fighting all cases. And as per them they are not employed by Speakasia. So where is the management involved???
Oz: As far as I know, there is no fresh case which has been booked. Can you check from your sources as to which court has ED lodged the formal case. The media has been syndicating the old news only I believe.
Yeah, Sanjeev Khanna !
IBN Live, January 3rd 2012 drafted the breaking news “ED registers money laundering case against Speak Asia” giving finishing touch at base line of the article as: “The city police had earlier arrested Speak Asia’s Chief
Operating Officer in India (COO) Tarak Bajpai, Financial Manager Ravi Khanna, the web portal’s technicians Rajeev Malhotra, and Rais Khan and panelist Deepankar Sarkar”.
I verified at official site of all courts but there is no admission date recorded. If formal case has been registered afterwards data & hearing date should be listed there. Correct?.
& only five (5) peoples arrested earlier? They have forgotten to bring up the name of rest. It seems that all old information copied from the press release of the month of June & August 2011.
@Sanjeev
Considering it’s never been reported that a case had been lodged before, I don’t see how this is a syndication of old news. The ED launched an investigation back in June, then that the’d decided to book Speak Asia and finally now they’ve lodged a case.
Considering the CBI were quoting a year on their investigation I think a few months is reasonable. That said, I’m not familiar with the case filing process for the ED so you’d have to contact them if you wanted specifics.
I believe it’s like how the EOW have launched their investigation and found Speak Asia to be the largest ponzi scheme they’ve ever investigated. Yet until they’re happy with the case to be brough forward regarding who’s running things, they themselves are yet to file anything.
Criminal cases of this magnitude and scope are quite complicated I’d imagine.
Not neccessarily. As far as I know there’s no online record of the Crasto/Dandekar arrests and bail hearings. Not all criminal matters are perusable online.
This news item seems to be a repeated one. Word like booked or registered does not match with a chargesheet. When booking a case means any agency will investigate the matter, a chargesheet is represented for legel trial.
@Andy — not being familiar with ED’s operational procedures, it may be possible that the case have not actually reached the court, but instead, goes like this
* launch investigation to determine if there is enough to warrant further investigation
* further investigation warranted, case is now “booked”
* full investigation concluded, case will be registered (in court?)
Which court(s) does the ED work under? Or is it they work on a national level?
http://www.directorateofenforcement.gov.in/functions.html
It’s just the news item, as Oz said we need more info.
From Andy’s link:
As far as I can see it’s the right Directorate for investigating and prosecuting money laundering.
“Registered a case” may have relation to a part of the case, like some seizing of property or something.
I think CBI/EOW/ED/ROC/SFIO ( Hope im not missing any names ) are all investigating SAOL functioning as per their DOMAIN.So ders nothing new in the news item in question..
And none of the above agencies can persue investigations without registering the case…so no point of registration of case here again when u hv already done it..
@Rana Ravinder Singh
I don’t think any here believes that SpeakAsia will start again.
If SpeakAsia had been a normal, registered company it would have been bankrupted within it’s first 3 months of operation, since it never made any money except for the payments from panelists.
Besides, they have already started other and similar schemes in India.
why you people vigoureslly spit on each other. What you both want to prove by arguing here. I feel you people are just guessing as people used to guess in older times whether the baby will be male or female. Why you both cant wait till the delivery.
One thing is pretty sure either the baby will be male or it will be female. one of you is going to win for sure in guessing (calculating /analysiog). So both of you be cool and wait till then exchange your views sportively and friendly.
Enemity should be the last thing in debate. . Hoping a friendly and respectfull debate . . Thanks and regards
@Boogie Man
What do you mean nothing new, this is the first we’re hearing of a case being registered.
Remember, an investigation is not a case and neither is booking the company – case is a legal term. In this instance it hopefully means legal action.
I don’t know what time time delay is on money laundering cases in India but it could be months (?). Also another thing to consider might be that they need to wait for management to show in India, in which case they might have to wait for the CBI investigation (up to one year) to conclude so that red corner notices can finally be issued for Kumar and Kaur.
Here’s a money laundering case handled by the EOW (they took the case in October 2010) that is only just now getting court action.
http://www.firstpost.com/fwire/cwg-ed-plans-fema-notice-to-singapore-firm-over-rs-500-cr-deal-171276.html
Of interest:
Not sure if those directors are Singapore based or in India though. October 2010 puts us at 16 months since the time of investigation to court action – so there could very well be long delays within the ED procedural process between booking a company, lodging a case and actually getting a court date for money laundering.
@Oz
From recent news stories it appears that investing agencies like ED, EOW are fed up with so many cases. Investing in case of speakasia will surely take time.
This soori guy is really very entertaining:).
Someone has posted on speakasia.mobi that Aaj Tak news channel showing “ED filed a case against speakasia”. In that case it is filed for legal proceedings. Can someone confirm the source?
@soori thanks for sharing your knowledge I was wrong about speak asians intelligence.;)
Sorry to break the mood, but we’re of the camp that the baby will be delivered DEAD (i.e. still birth) while SAOL camp seem to be the “I have to see the body” camp. 🙂
@k. Chang
Even the dead baby will be either male or female. I feel you people are having nice fun of others. You people are smart enough not to invest money in some fraud company. But do you think it will qualify you to tease and tore those who invested.
Its human to be kind towards the weaker sections of the society. All can not be Einsteins or Edisons. I heartly appreciate your effort in collecting exact information and proving it clearly about speak asia. But i am disappointed with the way you do it.
I am sorry if i talked more. Probably nobody can bring the lost money but we can be sympathetic towards them and if possible can console them and can bring awareness among them.
Would it really matter, though?
We’re not teasing those who invested in the scam. We are teasing those who invested in the scam and CONTINUE TO BELIEVE IN THE SCAM DESPITE EVERY SIGN NOT TO.
I, personally, have best wishes to those victims of SAOL that justice be done and they recover as much money as they can… EXCEPT to those who believe in the scam so much they deny reality. To them, I wish psychiatric intervention.
@k. Chang
Hi thank you. I am pleased with your clearification… Now i am clear that you are attacking those who are indirectly part of the scam and are keeping the innocent investors in as much dark as they can with their sugary words. Ashok is the best among them.
Thanks for your kind clearification.
I have been away from home and thereby my computer for the last two weeks. Nothing much happened during that time. However, now the events on investigations on this lousy company are unfolding from the various investigation departments. Gr8!
As for @Satish, SAOL management including Haram Kaur has already run away for greener pastures. It is the leaders who were earning a tidy daily binary income of Rs26k/day that are fighting for their survival using the name of SAOL.
These so call leaders had quit their earlier jobs to open offices in order to recruit gullible Indians as panelists of Speak Asia. As for @Nitesh, what happy news are you talking about? The only happy news for the gullible public that includes me is that tough laws are on the anvil for such virtual chain money schemes.
Even Zee News that until now was hobnobbing with Speak Asia has published exactly same news against Speak Asia as IBN Live.
As for @Soori, it is such forums that will deliver clear information on such ponzi schemes. Where else will you find it? At Pro-Speak Asia sites?
We are all are sympathetic for individual panelists but not the leaders who have made lakhs via binary income of recruiting and/or making their downlines recruit more.