speak-asia-online-logoFor the past few months Speak Asia supporters have predicted the legitimacy of the company on one thing and one thing only.

The fact that the EOW has not filed a chargesheet against Speak Asia.

Worringly, Speak Asia members assert that because nothing has been filed and the fact that a showdown between the EOW and Speak Asia in the Supreme Court is just days away, this means that the EOW have nothing on Speak Asia.

Ergo, this means that Speak Asia are simply going to waltz into the Supreme Court and be given clearance to restart their pyramid scheme again.

Shattering this fantasy of course are reports quoting officers of the EOW that have appeared over the past fortnight.

Combined with earlier reports that filtered in over the past month or so, the divide between reality and the illusion Speak Asia has been force feeding it’s members since the authorities moved against them couldn’t be deeper.

The obvious answer to why the EOW or CID haven’t as of yet filed a chargesheet against Speak Asia is that the criminal investigation each department is conducting into Speak Asia, aren’t finished.

I’ve been citing this for months and today it was confirmed by the EOW themselves.

Police officials who are investigating the case said that it is a huge case and the investigation is spread over several cities.

“We are going through a lot of documents and gathering evidence. Some arrests were made three months ago and we are preparing the reports”.

No doubt the speed in which the investigations are carried out is not helped by Speak Asia hiding it’s officials from the authorities in hospitals, overseas in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Singapore or as is currently the case with COO Tarak Bajpai who is on the run, within India itself.

Commenting further on the EOW’s criminal investigation, Chief Investigator B P Shelke stated that the reason the EOW is being so thorough in its investigation is that the ‘aim is to file a watertight chargesheet‘.

And fair enough. What with all nonsense being pumped out of the Speak Asia member sites on a daily basis (is there an Indian religious holiday Speak Asia members haven’t whored out and connected to Speak Asia?), there’s a lot of misinformation out there.

Not withstanding the stunts Speak Asia they themselves have pulled. Some more recent examples of course being

  • the cease and desist notice the company had Phoenix Legal send the Times of India for simply quoting the EOW
  • an exit option that was utterly useless given that it wasn’t connected to any member database and lacked any level of verification whatsoever
  • public claims that they are ready to restart payments to panelists knowing full well that’s not going to happen without Indian banks on board, and also knowing full well no Indian bank will touch Speak Asia until the criminal investigations into the company are concluded

Having gone before the Supreme Court unopposed and using the opportunity to lie about their business model, Speak Asia was set to face off against the RBI, EOW and CID on November the 8th, but this appears to have been now delayed until the 14th.

Note that I haven’t seen any official documentation supporting this claim but several sources have cited this new date so I’m including here only as speculation until I see proof positive.

Regardless, when Speak Asia and the authorities do face off in court, it’s no doubt bound to be pure entertainment to watch.

To date all Speak Asia have done is lie about their business model to the Supreme Court and possibly even the RBI (if they presented the same ‘products’ based business model they never actually used but only announced).

The company also filed a cease and desist against the Times of India last week, but as evidenced by the latest article by Mateen Hafeez today, the Times are clearly calling Speak Asia’s bluff.

Any why shouldn’t they? Having quoted the EOW directly, the Times would just rock up to court and state as much, leaving Speak Asia to take launch a defamation case against the EOW themselves. Something the company obviously isn’t going to do as they don’t have open access to the EOW’s criminal investigation against them.

Meanwhile, the EOW have publicly stated that Speak Asia

  • created 800 fraudulent panelist accounts
  • had no corporate clients for their surveys, instead opting to commission unsolicited surveys they claimed were from clients
  • a signed confession from former financial consultant of the company, Sanjeev Dandona, claiming that the entire business is a ‘ponzi scheme’

To date Speak Asia have no refuted the first or second claim and have only refuted the third claim by issuing a press release stating the claim was false ‘because we say so’.

Naturally ‘because we say so’ won’t hold up in court and it’ll certainly be interesting to see how Speak Asia defend their painfully obvious pyramid scheme business model in court, on top of the other claims the EOW have levelled against the company.

Speak Asia’s actual business model (the one and only business model the company ever used) is a simple plan where members pay a membership fee to the company and in return make either $7-$20 a week filling in fake surveys, or rake in large commissions via a direct recruitment commission or a pairing binary.

You can of course read more about the company’s business model in my original review of the Speak Asia, dated March of this year.

Any other business model the company, or anyone else for that matter tries to tell you Speak Asia was using or used is a lie. I honestly can’t emphasise this enough:

Speak Asia used one and only one business model to date and it had nothing to do with products, either selling them or claiming them as rewards.

The company did announce plans to initiate a business model along these lines, but it was never implemented and remains nothing more than a plan. Furthermore, any such plan in no way negates over twelve months of operation under the actual business model of the company – which is what the EOW and CID are investigating the company over.

That alone should be enough to shut the company down once and for all in court, but of course as mentioned above, it’s only the tip of the iceberg as far as the EOW’s investigation goes.

What happens next in the Supreme Court cannot obviously be predicted (despite nonsensical guarantees of ‘we are bound to win and we’ll definitely win’ by COO Tarak Bajpai and Speak Asia members), but in all honesty if anyone can provide how on Earth Speak Asia are going to defend the charges laid against them by the EOW, I’m all ears.

To date all I’ve heard is a bunch of blind faith baseless rhetoric… and to be quite honest, Speak Asia and its members are utterly kidding themselves if they think that’s going to hold up in court.

Bring on the court case guys, Speak Asia vs. the EOW’s ‘watertight’ case based on an extensive and thorough criminal investigation into the company;

Who do honestly think is going to win here?

 

Footnote: Whilst I appreciate that Speak Asia’s activities mostly affect Indians in India, please respect that this is an English blog. Comments in Hindi will not be published.