speak-asia-online-logoAfter last weekends developments regarding Speak Asia bank account closures in both India and Singapore, it seems the company has found itself simply indefensible.

So much so that its senior lawyer Ashok Saraogi resigned and ceased representing Speak Asia last Friday, just five days after he was initially hired.

This latest development is quite interesting seeing as how on Friday, obviously before he resigned, Saraogi made the following statement in relation to the bank account closures;

The actions have been done following all the media noise. We have a Bombay police directive against this action. We will challenge this legally.

So what exactly happened between Friday ‘we’re gunna fight everyone’ Saraogi and Friday ‘that’s it, I’m outta here!’ Saraogi?

When asked about his resignation, Saraogi ‘declined to comment‘.

Your guess is as good as mine but if I had to take a stab at it, I’d say preliminary assessment of banks closing accounts of their customers somehow being illegal were probably a bit hasty.

Meanwhile ‘sources’ close to Saraogi are claiming it was due to an unrealistic case workload;

since the investigations are on in several fronts, it wasn’t possible for a single lawyer to handle it.

That and perhaps the money being used to fund Speak Asia’s legal counsel was tied up in the Singapore bank accounts that were frozen and closed. CEO Harendar Kaur has publicly stated it could be up to two months before Speak Asia starts paying out those it owes again.

Maybe Saraogi just wasn’t prepared to wait that long. I guess from an educated legal perspective, he saw the writing on the wall.

Previously Saraogi had ‘defended the business model of Speak Asia and given it a clean chit (official recommendation)‘.

Hilariously, Saraogi (photo right) has a history of handling notorious criminal cases in India. Previous clients of his include ‘extradited gangster Abu Salem in the 1993 serial blasts’ and the offer to defend ‘Amir Ajmal Qasab’, one of the suspects in the Mumbai 26/11 terrorist attacks.

Defending gangsters and terrorists? No worries…

Speak Asia…?

Fahghettaboutit.