speak-asia-online-logoFor much of December we’ve been wondering what India’s EOW have been up to and how their criminal investigation into Speak Asia has been progressing.

As it stands now the last we’d heard was that they’d arrested AISPA President Melvin Crasto and Speak Asia’s acting COO, Ashish Dandekar, and were holding them in custody, suspecting the pair of being Speak Asia officials and not just the lackeys they claimed to be.

Then, yesterday afternoon the following news began to circulate amongst panelists via Facebook:

Kalyan Waskel: FRIENDS… I GOT SOME NEWS WITH RELIABLE SOURCES… TOMMAROW ON 26TH DECEMBER WE CAN GET SOME SURPRISE NEWS.. SO.. JUST WAIT….

Harsh Vora: It is learned from reliable the source that this year SANTACLOSE will distribute the special chocolete named “EoW ” on monday , 26-12-2011.

Now personally I have no idea what the ‘special chocolate named EOW’ Senior Panelist Harsh Vora was referring to is, but as promised – this morning the Times of India put out a much anticipated update on the status of the EOW’s criminal investigation into Speak Asia.

An article that probably reveals more about these senior panelist cheerleaders and their activities then they’re comfortable with.

The Times of India kicks off with the revelation from the EOW that

office bearers of alleged fraud firm SpeakAsia had invested around Rs 100 crore in commercial galas at prominent shopping malls in the city, flats in posh buildings and cars.

This was revealed during the probe on the firm across several nations.

No doubt explaining the continued hiding of Speak Asia’s CEO’s Manoj Sharma Kumar and Harendar Kaur overseas and the local disappearance of Tarak Bajpai, the EOW continue:

the properties were bought over the past one year. “We have identified the properties in over a dozen buildings and shopping malls. In some buildings, the flats cost over Rs 12-13 crore.

The accused also used the money to buy costly vehicles. Two Mercedes cars have been seized and we are planning to seize more,” the officer said.

One would remember that back in October the EOW ‘seized two Mercedes belonging to the firm’s Indian chief and panelist, Manoj Kumar Sharma‘, but who the other two Mercedes belongs to remains a mystery (Ashish Dandekar? Ashok Bahirwani?).

Whilst their investigation continues, the EOW state that at this point

they don’t want to disclose the properties at this stage. “We are securing these properties.

Once the process is completed, we will request the court to attach them,” the officer added.

What I believe is being referred to there is official charges against Speak Asia and it’s local Indian management, widely believed to have implanted themselves amongst the Speak Asia memberbase and masquerading as regular panelists.

The EOW note

that some of the accused still pretend to be victims and had even filed writ petitions in the Bombay High Court and Supreme Court stating that their business was completely legal.

Currently AISPA’s President Melvin Crasto, Solomon James (and 115 unnamed panelists) and AISPA’s Secretary Ashok Bahirwani (alleged by his daughter, Anju Argarwal), are all signed petitioners on various writs against Speak Asia.

In what capacity (if any) these panelists officially work for Speak Asia (along with acting COO accused Ashish Dandekar), currently remains unknown – however definitely appears to be one focus of the EOW’s investigation.

Meanwhile Rajvardhan Sinha, additional police commissioner for the EOW confirms that Speak Asia’s

chief operating officer (COO), Tarak Bajpai, managed to jump bail and has disappeared. Bajpai is still at large.

A fact that many Senior Panelists continue to deny.

Additionally, Investigating Officer Shelke added that

a red corner notice had been issued against Manoj Kumar Sharma, the Indian chief of the firm.

“We received information that Sharma had transferred huge sums of money from India to the United Bank of Singapore, and from there to Latin America.

Currently a public red corner notice for Speak Asia’s CEO Manoj Kumar does not appear on the CBI website, however the CBI note

CBI conducts investigations in the most professional manner. It lays great emphasis in use of science and technology during investigations. It requires evaluation of evidence by Forensic Laboratories and other experts such as Government Examiners of Questioned Documents (GEQDs). This often takes time.

Many cases of CBI often require investigation abroad. Collection of evidence in a foreign country depends on many external factors beyond the control of CBI. A letter of request is issued to the concerned country and collection of evidence is requested by the law enforcement agencies of that country. This adds to the delay.

In addition to above, there is multi-layer supervision in CBI. The evidence collected is analyzed threadbare both by executive officers and law officers at multiple levels. Because of all these factors, CBI investigations often take time.

Having said this, it is important to clarify that investigation of trap cases are generally finished within a period of one month to three months.

Of late a great emphasis is being laid in CBI to complete investigations at the earliest. It has been decided that investigation shall be completed within a period of one year.

As frustrating as it may be, the EOW have previously stated that Speak Asia is the largest MLM fraud they have ever investigated. Thus, in addition to having to track money laundering activities across the globe, with legal action being launched by Speak Asia officials posing as panelists to stop investigations into the company, and even Speak Asia themselves attempting to prohibit the CID from investigating them in the Supreme Court – delays appear inevitable.

One would think if Speak Asia’s management and business model were legitimate, it would simply be a matter of turning up to court and proving it.

Instead, management remain in hiding and on the run from authorities.

Yesterday, Speak Asia Senior Panelist Sanjeev Khanna posed the following question on BehindMLM;

If you are unbiased then please let us know what are the other ways to recover our money.

My advice? The money is gone and no amount of petitions is going to bring it back from Brazil.

Led by the false promises of Speak Asia officials still being paid by the company, panelists (some Senior Panelists included), attach themselves to legal action launched against the authorities to stop them investigating the company.

Having progressed beyond establishing whether or not Speak Asia is a scam, these investigations are now focusing on the recovery of money after Speak Asia’s global money laundering efforts.

Under the guise of promises of a restart of business operations, officials posing as Senior Panelists lead this legal action in the hope to either effectively shut down, or delay these investigations.

Investigations whose sole focus now is the recovery of assets and  funds misappropriated and then laundered by Speak Asia.

Why do you think the EOW are chasing this money? It’s not to line their own pockets, it’s to establish exactly who is involved in Speak Asia and in what capacity, and after criminal charges have been filed in court hopefully leave something to be distributed amongst those that invested in the company.

But instead of understanding this, in order to push their own financial agendas, Speak Asia’s Senior Panelists continue to allow the propagation of messages like this via their Facebook groups:

Harsh Vora: Good afternoon friends , yesterday media again on same negative track for SAOL one by one , first mumbai mirror publish negative news that SAOL duped various crores and now in BRAZIL , and all bullshit on basis of BEHIND MLM.

Madfull Talk: I believe we all Speak Asians are Now totally immune to these Barking Dogs (Media)… SAOL will teach them A BIG BIG lesson when It restarts Itself Up.

They Are Now actually AFRAID of Speak Asia !!

The delusion is almost painfully unbearable.

Time to wake up guys and smell the lies. Instead of uniting against the authorities trying to recover what they can and hold those responsible accountable, how about you unite to demand company management return to India to face the charges leveled against them.

If your uplines tell you to wait, tell them it’s not good enough. Each day management hide from the EOW and relevant authorities they slip further away and more panelist money is invested into properties, luxury cars and who knows what else Seven Rings and Podium International executives are treating themselves to.

If you want to recover your money march into the local police station and tell them everything you know. Continuing to ignore the EOW’s investigation and it’s focus is not going to get you anywhere and in doing so you might as well be signing a permission slip for Kumar, Kaur and the rest of Speak Asia management to rob you blind.

 

Footnote: It is appreciated that the Senior Panelists the EOW are talking about will simply dismiss and encourage others to dismiss the above based on nothing more than ‘it’s lies by some unnamed conspiracy theory against Speak Asia by aliens’, but note that the December 26th TOI article referenced was authored by none other than Mateen Hafeez.

Speak Asia, through their lawyers Phoenix Legal, claim they sent a cease and desist to the TOI back in October, complaining about Hafeez’s prior articles.

Speak Asia claim that Hafeez

falsely reported certain news items about our company and its COO, we urge all of you to kindly not pay attention to such false and misleading reports.

False and misleading? It would appear that Speak Asia’s toothless cease and desist was, as suspected, prompty trashed and ignored by the TOI – who instead continue to publish factual updates straight from the EOW themselves.

AISPA Secretary Ashok Bahirwani’s daughter, Anju Argarwal even went so far as to claim that

mateen hafiz wrote one article immediately after the cease and desist notice.this was probably because the letter reached the desk and attention of senior management a little late and before they had their requisite meeting amongst themselves ,and decided to take mateen’s pen away from him ,his last article was already published.since then silence.

It has since come to my attention that Hafeez got married and time off work accounted for the lack of coverage from himself and the TOI.

Wishing Hafeez well in his marriage, I look forward to continued coverage of the EOW’s investigation.