Church of the Churchless

RSSB guru'a wife deeply involved in real estate deal

This is a follow-up to yesterday's blog post, "Here's an example of Dhillon family connections to shell companies." Someone just sent me a PDF file of an analyst's 2014 report on a company owned by Shabnam Dhillon, the wife of the guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas.

Download SGGD-Projects-Development-PPMLD_335Cr-Rationale-9May2014

The company, SGGD Projects Development Pvt Ltd, is one of the 56 entities, many or most controlled by the Dhillon family, that the High Court of Delhi has ordered money to be recovered from.

A screenshot of part of the report shows how deeply Shabnam Dhillon, and the Dhillon family in general, were involved in high stakes financial dealings -- at the same time Gurinder Singh Dhillon was preaching about the need to live a pure and simple life in which spiritual advancement should take precedence over acquiring great wealth.

Here's an example of Dhillon family connections to shell companies

Recently I received a message from someone who replicated part of the research that journalists with the Indian financial press have been doing in connection with the financial scandal involving the Singh brothers, their guru cousin (Gurinder Singh Dhillon), and close associates of the Dhillon family.

I'm sharing what this person learned by delving into public business records for several reasons.

One, it's interesting. Two, it shows what lies beneath the many stories published by the Indian financial press, which some defenders of the Radha Soami Satsang Beas guru wrongly call "fake news." Three, it points to the fact that if this much can be learned by an ordinary citizen or reporter, investigative authorities in India surely are able to learn much more.

As background to what you'll read below, Luminous Holdings is one of the 56 entities the High Court of Delhi has ordered that money be recovered from, so the Singh brothers can pay a $500 million settlement owed to Daiichi Sankyo after it was found that the brothers failed to disclose information about adulterated drugs in the course of Daiichi buying Ranbaxy, their pharmaceutical firm.

Here's an excerpt from a September 2018 blog post I wrote about a The Indian Express story that mentions Luminous Holdings.

According to a source privy to the development, some senior members of the sect recently asked Dhillon about his reaction to various news reports regarding the Singh brothers. The source said that Dhillon told these members that he has answers to all the questions that have been raised and he will give the answers himself at an opportune time. Dhillon told the senior members that spiritual and business aspects of our lives are separate and that devotees should focus on the former and not get diverted from it.

The RHC Holding as well as the RSSB did not respond to the queries sent by The Indian Express. Another source — involved with RSSB’s corporate dealings — added that Dhillons have been in business with Singh brothers for a very long time. “Take the example of Luminous Holdings, which was set up in 2002, and has Babaji himself as a director. Moreover, his wife Shabnam Dhillon is the other director of this company,” he said.

According to documents with corporate affairs ministry, Luminous Holdings had a long term borrowing of Rs 6.5 crore as on March 2017. Of that, around Rs 4.4 crore came from Delhi-based Fern Healthcare. In June, a probe by law firm Luthra and Luthra found that Singh brothers moved about Rs 475 crore from Fortis to various private companies. Fern Healthcare was one of them.

Thus it isn't surprising that it is taking investigators in India quite a while to understand the complex web of financial transactions, many of them fraudulent, that involve companies once controlled by the Singh brothers and the Dhillon family. The message that I received deals with only one small strand of this web.

Read on... (As noted above, Shabnam Dhillon is the wife of Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the RSSB guru.)

Hey Brian, hope you're well. Sharing some of my recent findings. I've conducted some research into the shell companies, purely out of curiosity :)

zaubacorp.com is a reliable directory/website where you can find out details about Private Limited Companies. All of which are public domain information made available at Ministry of Corporate Affairs website (Government-owned).

 

http://www.mca.gov.in/mcafoportal/showEnquireDIN.do

 

Shabnam Dhillon is registered with Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA). Their DIN is 00995960.  [Director Identification Number (DIN) is a permanent number assigned to Directors of registered companies]

 

The following link will show only one company associated with Shabnam Dhillon, but if you register on this website (free) you can see historic data of associations (now that's a gold mine for some investigation IMO).

 

https://www.zaubacorp.com/director/SHABNAM-DHILLON/00995960   Attached screenshots show past associations.

 

Came across this interesting company "LUMINOUS HOLDINGS PRIVATE LIMITED"  guess who are the Directors? Check the 2nd attachment. GSD [Gurinder Singh Dhillon] himself is one of them but his DIN is in an inactive state, means he is no longer listed as a director on any of the shell companies.

 

Clearly, they are trying to remove any links to Dhillon family to shell companies, as you can see most of the current Directors are recently appointed 2016-19. Unfortunately for them, there are a lot of services like zaubacorp.com where you can find historic data too.

 

You are probably aware of most of these companies, I just wanted to share what I came across. I'm closely watching how the local media (mostly English, financial press) is covering this whole fiasco. One thing is very clear, GSD is way deep into this whole shebang. And they're doing whatever it takes to cover up any traces. 

This is the screenshot of the current and past directors of Luminous Holdings. You can see that the two current directors took over on May 4, 2019, the day Gurinder Singh Dhillon ceased to be a director. His wife, Shabnam, ceased to be a director a few days later, on May 9, 2019.

And I believe the following screenshot is a list of past companies Shabnam Dhillon was a director of.

Note that Prius Real Estate, Prius Commercial Projects, and Sharan Hospitality are some of the companies in this Business Today graphic of how money flowed into the pockets of the Dhillon family from companies once controlled by the Singh brothers. 

So any claim by the RSSB guru that he and his family didn't receive any money from RHC Holding, Fortis, and other Singh brothers' entities almost certainly would be false.

 

Story about Gurinder Singh Dhillon and RSSB casts light on legal problems

Check out an excellent lengthy story about a guru, Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB) organization that he leads, and the financial scandal the Dhillon family and his close associates are connected to.
Download Gurinder Singh Dhillon — the music & film-loving Radha Soami head at heart of Fortis crisis

The reporter who wrote ThePrint story, Nandita Singh, emailed me with questions, which I responded to in writing. Unfortunately, I didn't proofread my reply closely enough and left out a word, "no," in the quote included in the final paragraph of the story, where I meant to say "no wrong."

Here's some excerpts from the story to whet your appetite to read the whole thing, which presents a balanced view of Gurinder Singh Dhillon and Radha Soami Satsang Beas. I've added "no" in brackets in the final paragraph.

Interestingly, the reporter had her phone taken away after she snapped a photo at a RSSB center, just as happened to someone else in the United Kingdom who recorded some audio at a RSSB gathering. If RSSB doesn't want to be looked upon as a cult, its members should stop acting so fanatical.

...But outside the cocoon of the Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB) ashram in Bhati, Chhatarpur, the spiritual organisation’s moral messaging is becoming increasingly hard to believe.

The century-old spiritual organisation’s head, 64-year-old Gurinder Singh Dhillon, is at the centre of one of India’s most high-profile business fiascos this year.

In October, former billionaire brothers Malvinder and Shivinder Singh, now on the verge of bankruptcy, were arrested by the Delhi Police economic offences wing (EOW) for allegedly causing a loss of Rs 2,397 crore to Religare Finvest Ltd (RFL), a subsidiary of Religare Enterprises.

Eight months prior to that, Malvinder, the embattled business tycoon and former Ranbaxy, Religare and Fortis promoter, had filed a criminal complaint against his younger brother Shivinder, claiming that he conspired with a number of close associates to siphon off Rs 2,700 crore from their family’s holding company (RHC Holdings).

The money, Malvinder alleged, was transferred into the bank accounts of “Guruji” Dhillon and his associates in the form of loans made through a complicated network of smaller corporations, and used, in part, to expand the sect’s real-estate empire.

This allegedly included the purchase of 2,60,000 sq ft of prime real estate in Delhi (near Select Citywalk Mall), 80,000 sq ft of property in Ahmedabad, 500,000 sq ft in Noida, three farmhouses in Asola, and 8,71,200 sq ft in Gurgaon, Live Mint reported.

The tale only gets murkier, with Malvinder alleging that Shivinder had an ambition to one day head the powerful RSSB. Both brothers were Friday held in contempt by the Supreme Court, in another case involving the sale of Ranbaxy to Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo.

...How is a spiritual guru related to all this? Dhillon is cousin to the Singhs’ mother, and assumed a father-like role for the boys after their own passed away in the late 1990s.

The well-connected Babaji succeeded the Singh brothers’ maternal grandfather (his uncle) to become the guru of the popular sect in 1990. He was informed about the succession after a long flight, a close associate says, while he was dressed in jeans.

After the allegations surfaced, Dhillon denied owing any money to RHC Holdings, even after the Delhi High Court ordered him and 54 other associates, including his family, to cough up Rs 6,000 crore as repayment.

But now, while maintaining his debt-free innocence, Dhillon has finally owned up to financial transactions between him and the Ranbaxy brothers.

In a 12 November affidavit, the RSSB chief finally said the Singh brothers had approached him in 2010 to buy more rights in REL. To do this, Dhillon says, the brothers spent a reported Rs 440 crore through RHC on his behalf, adding that he “would not be made liable to repay any amount or interest”.

...This isn’t the first time the RSSB has come under public scrutiny for suspected illegal activity. For years, the rapid expansion of its real-estate empire has been at the centre of land-grabbing allegations, with the Delhi Forest Department officially filing an affidavit before the National Green Tribunal in 2014.

In the 350-page affidavit, the RSSB is described as an “illegal occupant” squatting on 174.98 acres of forest land in Asola Mines, Chhatarpur — where the Bhati ashram is. Further, the Delhi Forest Department believes that the dera, along with spiritual slums that sprung up next to it, are damaging the ecology of the Delhi ridge, the lungs of a city throttled by pollution.

The RSSB denies all allegations, stating that the land was bought by them, and they were willing to furnish the paperwork when asked.

...As the success stories of Fortis Healthcare Ltd and Religare Enterprises Ltd (REL) unravel, what appears to be at the faultline of the Singhs’ fall from grace is this very interconnected network of influential kin that initially helped them, and the RSSB, grow.

“I’m strongly inclined to believe the reports in the Indian financial press that Malivinder and Shivinder trusted Gurinder (Dhillon) as a father figure and spiritual adviser. But also, a business adviser,” says Brian Hines, an American who was a member of the sect’s US community for 35 years.

“Babaji’s influence over the affairs of Religare was ubiquitous — he pulled most of the strings,” the family associate adds.

“The relationship between Malvinder, Shivinder, Sunny (Sunil Godhwani) and Babaji wasn’t a secret at all, they would constantly be together and very visibly so. In fact, everyone would say ‘Religare is Babaji’s’, says the associate.

...Even in Hine’s experience at the commune, the “RSSB is a highly top-down organisation”. “The guru makes decisions and lower-level people implement them under his close supervision,” he says.

The sewadars describe Babaji as being “someone who talks in a way that everyone can relate to… but whom you can’t access easily”, a believer in Delhi who did not want to be named says.

...“As in all religions, the true believers are fanatical,” adds Hines. “I know, because I get so many comments on my blog posts telling me I must stop writing about Gurinder because he is God and can do [no] wrong. I ignore them, of course. I’m sure journalists get the same sort of angry insults.”

RSSB guru and his family told to provide evidence of no liabilities to Singh brothers

In addition to stories I shared in two other blog posts about today's developments in the High Court of Delhi case involving the Singh brothers and their relative, Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas, below is another story from The Indian Express.

The court is turning up the heat on the Dhillon family and others who, according to the Singh brothers, owe money to them that would enable Malvinder and Shivinder to pay a $500 million settlement to Daiichi Sankyo, a Japanese firm that got the settlement after it bought a pharmaceutical firm owned by the Singh brothers that had undisclosed problems with adulterated drugs.

As you can read below, this is the way a legal system should work. Both sides have to present facts and evidence that support their assertions, then a decision is made as to who has the best case.

What's interesting here is that the RSSB guru is considered to be God in Human Form, or at least a divine being, by his devotees. So for 29 years, since Dhillon became the guru, he has had little experience with people questioning him. Dhillon is used to fawning admiration, by and large.

Now, though, Daiichi Sankyo and RHC Holding, the two corporations that consider the Dhillon family to be sitting on large amounts of money that belongs to them, don't care about Dhillon's spiritual credentials. They just want their damn money!

So it'll be interesting to see how this plays out.

As the story says, the RSSB guru and others have four weeks to provide documentary evidence that they don't owe money to the Singh brothers. Further, the "garnishees" named in the High Court order are obliged to answer questions from Daiichi Sankyo.

On February 5 the High Court will have a hearing where, seemingly, the conflicting truth claims of the various parties will be sorted out. 

Here's The Indian Express story.

The Delhi High Court Thursday directed companies and persons who allegedly owe monies to former Ranbaxy promoters Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh to provide documentary evidence — including income tax filings, bank statements and balance sheets — to support claims that they have no pending financial liabilities towards the brothers.

The HC direction potentially opens Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB) chief Gurinder Singh Dhillon and his family to further scrutiny, as Dhillon had — in an affidavit filed with the HC on November 12— claimed to have returned all the money he had borrowed from the Singhs and that, instead, the brothers owed him over Rs 70 crore.

The court also allowed Japanese drugmaker Daiichi Sankyo to send questions related to these transactions to over 50 such firms and individuals, or garnishees. They will then have to compulsorily answer those questions. Justice J R Midha has also asked the garnishees to submit documentary evidence if they contest claims of loans made to them by RHC Holding Pvt, a firm controlled by the Singhs.

Daiichi on Thursday also claimed that the garnishees had not complied with all earlier court orders to disclose “all their dealings and transactions” with the Singh brothers, their family members, and the firms controlled by them. The HC has given the garnishees four weeks to file said the affidavits. Daiichi is seeking over Rs 3,600 crore in damages from the Singhs for allegedly concealing information regarding wrongdoing at Ranbaxy when they sold it to Daiichi for $4.6 billion in 2008.

Financial deals with Ranbaxy brothers, admits Beas sect head

RHC Holding had, in October, told the HC that its subsidiaries had “huge receivables” from Dhillon and his family. The RSSB head, however, has denied these claims. Instead, he has alleged that the holding company is yet to pay him over Rs 70 crore, loaned to the Singhs upon their request in 2011 after his sons sold some of their shares in Religare Enterprises.

“In summary, over the course of 2011-2015, out of the surplus of Rs 103.5 crore with Respondent No. 19 (RHC) … the Deponent (Dhillon) and his family drew only Rs 29.38 crore, leaving a balance surplus of Rs 74.12 crore,” Dhillon said in his affidavit. “These amounts have never been repaid,” he added. Dhillon has also alleged that the Singhs used bank accounts owned by his family to conduct circular transactions over Rs 600 crore, the purpose of which was “unknown” to them.

A group of companies comprising Best Healthcare, Fern Healthcare, Modland Wears, Best Health Management, Devera Developers, Vitoba Realtors and Adept Lifespaces, “from time to time … moved money between themselves”, the affidavit read.

“These transactions essentially involved transferring money from one subsidiary to a bank account of the Deponent and/or his family members and then transferring the same money, either on the same day or shortly thereafter, to another subsidiary of the group or usually to Respondent No. 19 itself,” it stated.

“The transactions carried out by Respondent No. 19 resulted in GP (Gurpreet Singh Dhillon) and GK (Gurkirat Singh Dhillon) receiving funds from various companies controlled by Respondent No. 19, which were immediately transferred to Respondent No. 19 and/or other companies controlled by Respondent No. 19,” Dhillon’s affidavit added.

Between 2011 and 2016, RHC’s subsidiaries had transferred Rs 292.91 crore and Rs 428.59 crore, respectively, to Dhillon’s sons Gurpreet and Gurkirat. Of this, Rs 291.70 crore was transferred back from Gurpreet’s account and Rs 427.78 crore from Gurkirat’s account to RHC or one of the other subsidiaries, the affidavit claimed. Queries sent to RHC and Dhillon’s lawyer remained unanswered by press time on Thursday.

High Court delays hearing involving RSSB guru and others to February 5

Here's another story relating to the involvement of Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas, in irregular financial transactions. 

Today's Economic Times story casts more light on the affidavit submitted by Dhillon in response to a High Court of Delhi order. Yesterday I shared another story on the same subject.

As you can read below, Dhillon admits that his sons participated in suspicious "round trip" transfers of money between RHC Holding and shell companies controlled wholly or in part by the Dhillon family, where money would be paid and repaid so rapidly, it didn't show up on accounting statements until this was eventually discovered.

Another interesting aspect of the story is that it answers a question in an earlier post today following the arrest of Malvinder Singh by India's Enforcement Directorate. What happened to the November 14 hearing of the High Court regarding this matter? The last paragraph of the story below says:

The court that took up the matter today asked the other garnishees to file their affidavit to the court registrar by 18 December. The next date of hearing is February 5.

So Dhillon and his family will have to answer more questions about their involvement in this financial scandal. The RSSB guru is challenging the financial records of RHC Holding.

Dhillon has categorically denied liability to repay the said amounts and also denied the validity or correctness of the ledgers annexed in the RHC affidavit. “The said ledgers were never shared with the deponent or his family members and the same are denied for lack of knowledge or even otherwise,” it added.

"Denied for lack of knowledge" seems like a weak excuse. And now the Dhillon family isn't denying that they received fraudulent funds. They're just denying that they have to pay the money back.
Download Radha Soami chief admits to financial dealings with Singh brothers - The Economic Times

Chief of Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB) Gurinder Singh Dhillon has admitted of his financial dealings with the Singh brothers though he denied of “any liability” towards RHC holdings Ltd, promoted by Malvinder and Shivinder Singh. In an affidavit filed before the Delhi High court on November 12, Dhillon has disclosed about the financial transactions between RHC holdings Ltd and his family members dating back to 2006.

The court had in October ordered Dhillon along with his wife Shabnam, sons Gurkirat and Gurpreet and daughter in law Nayan Tara to deposit the amount owed to RHC holdings pvt Ltd in connection with the execution of Rs 3500 crore arbitration award won by Japanese form Daiichi Sankyo against former Ranbaxy promoters. While in his plea Dhillon had told the court that RHC Holding has made false claims. The court in its order had then asked the Dhillons to file relevant documents related to their dealings and transactions with the garnishees and their related companies.

The Dhillons are among 55 individuals and entities ordered by the court to pay over Rs 6000 crore owed to RHC holding in connection with the settlement of a dispute to Daiichi Sankyo’s acquisition of Ranbaxy laboratoriesNSE 5.63 %.

According to a 74 page affidavit filed in the High Court, Dhillon has said that in 2010, RHC holdings Ltd (respondent 19) through Singh brothers had approached him to assist them in subscribing for the rights issue, suggesting that they would finance Dhillons to subscribe to the rights issue. Dhillon has said that it was agreed that he and his family members would not be made liable to repay any amount or interest. “It was also agreed that upon the shares being sold or disposed of if the price realised was below the subscribed price, then the entire amount would be shared 50:50” between RHC and Dhillons family who had subscribed to the shares”.

He has claimed that in view of the “complete trust” and “close family relationship” between the families, they did not record any agreement and the arrangement was based “purely on mutual oral understanding and agreement”. “In fact at that time the local bank accounts from which the transactions were taking place were looked after by respondent No 19’s team,” it said.

On the basis of “verbal agreement” in February 2010, RHC transferred Rs 219 crore each to his sons, which was then used to subscribe to the rights issue, resulting in an allotment of 61,83,013 shares of REL to each of his sons.

According to the affidavit, Dhillon has disclosed that his sons sold off some shares in 2011 which they had purchased in 2006. The rest of the shares, according to Dhillon’s affidavit were “pledged to the lenders in connection with loans taken to facilitate share purchase transaction for the benefit of Malvinder and Shivinder. The pledges were invoked and the shares were sold at a substantial loss,” it said. Resultantly, the family doesn’t own REL shares, he claims. Dhillon has said that RHC had surplus funds of his sons of Rs 103.50 crores and it was agreed that the amount would be repaid to the Dhillons as and when required.

He has also disclosed that RHC devised such a mechanism that transactions essentially involved transferring money from one subsidiary to a bank account of Dhillons and then transferring the same money either on the same day or shortly thereafter to another subsidiary of the group or usually to RHC holdings Ltd.

“The transactions carried out by Respondent 19 (RHC holdings) resulted in Gurpreet and Gurkirat receiving funds from various companies controlled by Respondent 19 which were immediately transferred to Respondent 19 or to other companies controlled by Respondent 19,” It said.

In fact, he has claimed that over the course of 2011-2015, out of the surplus of Rs 103.5 crores with RHC he and his family drew only Rs29.38 crores, leaving the balance surplus of Rs 74.12 crores. “Thus an amount of Rs 74.12 crores continues to be due from RHC holdngs Ltd”.

According to his affidavit, “no amounts are payable by his, his wife and his daughter in law to any of the entities named in the RHC affidavit.

Dhillon has categorically denied liability to repay the said amounts and also denied the validity or correctness of the ledgers annexed in the RHC affidavit. “The said ledgers were never shared with the deponent or his family members and the same are denied for lack of knowledge or even otherwise,” it added.

The court that took up the matter today asked the other garnishees to file their affidavit to the court registrar by 18 December. The next date of hearing is February 5.

Malvinder Singh arrested by Enforcement Directorate, leaving questions unanswered

Well, the Bollywood'ish financial fraud drama involving the Singh brothers and their relative, Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas, has taken another turn -- with more curves in the legal road seemingly lying ahead.

A story in The Economic Times (below) says that India's Enforcement Directorate has just arrested Malvinder Singh and Sunil Godhwani, who previously was the guru's right hand man and personal financial adviser. 

Previously Malvinder and Shivinder Singh, along with Godhwani, had been arrested by the Economic Offenses Wing (EOW) of the Delhi police. So now they've been re-arrested by an organization that investigates money laundering and other illegal financial acts.

It sounds from the story that one purpose of the new arrests is "custodial interrogation." This makes sense, since there are important questions remaining to be answered in this case.

(1) Malvinder has told the High Court of Delhi that the $500 million or so owed by the Singh brothers in a settlement related to the sale of their pharmaceutical firm, Ranbaxy, resides in 55 entities (people and shell companies), including the Dhillon family. The High Court had ordered these entities to repay the money. A High Court hearing was supposed to be held today on this. So far there's no word if it happened. If it didn't, why not?

(2) The story below says that money went to various persons, then siphoned off. Previously progress seems to have been made on tracing the money flows. Likely this will continue under the Enforcement Directorate. Pretty clearly, Malvinder and Godhwani didn't engage in fraud for their own benefit, since the money didn't end up with them.

So it's important to learn who ended up with the money, and who orchestrated the financial fraud. Malvinder's lawyer has called for the arrest of the RSSB guru. Reportedly Dhillon, his family, and close associates ended up with most of the illegally siphoned money.

(3) Why is it taking so long for this case to be resolved? Yes, it is complex, involving numerous people, corporations, shell companies, and investigative organizations. But it sure seems like skilled forensic accountants could have figured out the money flows by now, since some details of the financial fraud activity have been reported in the Indian financial press.

I'm wondering how cooperative some central actors in the fraud have been, notably Sunil Godhwani. Given his close connections to the RSSB guru, is he refusing to testify about his role in the fraud, who orchestrated it, and why it was committed?

Here's today's The Economic Times story. 

The ED on Thursday arrested former Fortis HealthcareNSE -0.35 %promoter Malvinder Singh and former CMD of Religare Enterprises Ltd (REL) Sunil Godhwani in a money-laundering case related to alleged misappropriation of funds of Religare Finvest Ltd (RFL).

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) took both the accused in its custody inside the Tihar central jail here, where they are currently lodged in a case filed by the Delhi Police in relation to the alleged scam.

A court here was informed about the development by the agency's lawyer, Nitesh Rana, who urged it to issue a production warrant against the accused for seeking their custodial interrogation.

The court, however, directed that the accused be produced before a metropolitan magistrate in the central jail itself since trial prisoners are not being produced in the Saket District Court, either physically or through video-conference, due to the ongoing lawyers' strike.

"The court is informed that accused Malvinder Mohan Singh and Sunil Godhwani are lodged in central jail numbers 8 and 7 respectively at Tihar Jail. Accordingly, the applications filed by the ED be put up before the concerned duty MM, Tihar jail tomorrow, i.e, November 15, for disposal in accordance with law," Special Judge Sandeep Yadav said.

Both Singh and Godhwani are accused of laundering money, punishable under sections 3 and 4 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, the ED said.

They were in judicial custody along with Singh's brother Shivinder and two others -- Kavi Arora and Anil Saxena -- in a case filed by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Delhi Police.

RFL is a group firm of REL, which was earlier promoted by the Singh brothers.

According to the ED, both the accused, along with others, transferred an amount of approximately Rs 1,000 crore to various persons from entities linked to the corporate loan book and finally, the money was siphoned off.

The agency started its investigation in the matter on the basis of a case lodged by the Delhi Police.

Malvinder (46), Shivinder (44), Godhwani (58), Arora (48) and Saxena were arrested by the Delhi Police's EOW for allegedly diverting the money and investing in other companies.

The EOW registered an FIR in March after it received a complaint from RFL's Manpreet Suri against Shivinder, Godhwani and others, alleging that loans were taken by them while managing the firm but the money was invested in other companies.

"They put RFL in a poor financial condition by disbursing loans to companies with no financial standing and controlled by them. The companies to which the loans were disbursed willfully defaulted in repayments and caused a loss to RFL to the tune of Rs 2,397 crore," the police had alleged.

RSSB guru admits to financial deals with Singh brothers

A commenter on this blog recently shared a link to this story in The Indian Express. It's a prelude to the November 14 hearing before  the High Court of Delhi, where parties who allegedly owe money to the Singh brothers (Malvinder and Shivinder) have been ordered to appear as part of the $500 million settlement award to Daiichi.

Download Financial deals with Ranbaxy brothers admits Beas sect head | Business News The Indian Express

l found it sort of curious that Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the RSSB guru, filed an affidavit admitting to being part of an illegal financial transaction just two days prior to the High Court hearing. It's also interesting that reportedly the guru has said that he didn't receive any money from anyone but his parents, since it appears that Dhillon was a beneficiary of the deal described below. 

THE HEAD of Radha Soami Satsang Beas, Gurinder Singh Dhillon, has, for the first time, admitted to financial transactions between himself and ex-Religare Enterprises (REL) promoters Malvinder and Shivinder Singh.

In an affidavit filed with the Delhi High Court dated November 12 and reviewed by The Indian Express, Dhillon admitted that the Singh brothers had in 2010, through RHC Holding (a company controlled by the brothers), approached him and his family to subscribe to a rights issue of REL that was not fully subscribed “at that moment”. A part of the rights issue was funded by RHC and the Singh brothers, who Radha Soami sect head admits to financial deals with Ranbaxy brothers spent a total of Rs 440 crore on the transaction.

“It was suggested by them (Malvinder and Shivinder Singh) that they would finance the deponent (Dhillon) and his family to subscribe to the rights issue. It was agreed that the deponent and his family members would not be made liable to repay any amount or interest in respect of the said finance management since it was being done at the behest of RHC, Malvinder Mohan Singh and Shivinder Mohan Singh,” Dhillon has said in his affidavit.

“It was also agreed upon that the shares being sold and/ or disposed of, if the price realised was higher than the subscribed prices, the upside would be shared 50:50 between RHC and the members of the deponent’s family (Dhillons) who had subscribed to the shares,” he added.

He goes on to admit that his sons, Gurpreet Singh Dhillon and Gurkirat Singh Dhillon, were given possession of over 61 lakh shares each through the subscription.

“On the basis of this verbal agreement, on 11.02.2010, Respondent No. 19 (RHC) transferred Rs 219.5 crore each to GP (Gurpreet) and GK (Gurkirat), which was then used to subscribe to the rights issue, resulting in an allotment of 61,83,013 shares of REL to each of GP and GK. The entire transaction was handled by Respondent No. 19’s team,” said Dhillon.

Dhillon has claimed that as the two families were then in a “very close relationship”, they did not record any written agreement. He has absolved his family members from any involvement in the financial transactions carried out by him. He, however, distanced himself from allegations of fund diversion by claiming that the brothers, as well as RHC had “deliberately” avoided giving a clear picture of all transactions between them as it would show “that nothing whatsoever is owed by the deponent (Dhillon) and his family members” to RHC or any of its subsidiaries.

The transactions alleged by Dhillon are in violation of Securities and Exchange Bureau of India (SEBI) norms on promoters’ role in rights issues of companies.

The religious sect head also states in his affidavit that in 2006, he had, on behalf of his sons, purchased REL shares worth Rs 12.50 crore. Of this, Rs 6 crore was loaned to Gurpreet and Gurkirat by RHC. A further sum of Rs 35 crore was taken out by his sons as loans for personal purposes, but was subsequently returned in 2011, Dhillon claimed in his affidavit.

Queries sent to RHC and Dhillon remained unanswered by press time Wednesday.

Earlier, Malvinder Singh had, in an affidavit to the High Court and Supreme Court, alleged that Dhillon and persons associated with him had diverted close to Rs 6,000 crore from RHC. The monies were loans and advances given by RHC and the Singh brothers to companies such as Prius Real Estate, as well as to Sunil Godhwani, and Dhillon, Malvinder Singh had claimed in his affidavit.

In October, based on the submissions made by Malvinder Singh, the Delhi High Court had asked all the 55 garnishees to deposit the money they owed to the Singh brothers and RHC, within 30 days. The court had also asked Dhillon and his family members to be personally present in the court on November 14. Garnishees are companies that owe money to RHC, which is currently locked in litigation with Japanese drug-maker Daiichi Sankyo.

Daiichi has alleged the Singh brothers concealed information regarding wrongdoing at Ranbaxy when selling the firm to it in 2008 and is seeking over Rs 3,600 crore in damages from them.

Claims to absolute truth lead to abuses of power

Sam Harris conducted an interesting interview with Buddhist heretic Stephen Batchelor (I consider that word to be a compliment) and shared it on his Waking Up iPhone app.

Here's my transcription of a part of the interview where Batchelor talks about abuses of power in religious or spiritual organizations. I think he's correct that hierarchical institutions make it easier for wrongdoing to take place by those at the top.

And I also agree that claims to knowledge of ultimate truth by a religious leader also lead to abuses of power. This is what Batchelor said. There may be a few small errors in my transcription, but I've got it almost entirely correct.

Well, there's many different ways we could approach this. And one way I'd like to approach it off the top of my head is to think of it as really a function of a different kind of human institution. Let me just restrict myself to Buddhism.

Institutions in which you find, in a way, the greatest number of incidents are the institutions that are the most feudal and hierarchical. And as you said yourself, you have it more in the Zen and Tibetan and less in the Theraveda.

Well, the kinds of societies that these particular three traditions come from rather make my point. 

If you have a society that honors a kind of absolute relation of power between a feudal lord and underlings, or a king and the subjects, and you model your monastic institutions, probably quite unconsciously, on that structure of power, then you give people, individual men almost entirely, extraordinary power over others.

And when you have a theocratic tradition like in Tibet, with notions of enlightenment that are, frankly, superhuman, and these are projected onto these men who have all this power, you have a very unbalanced relationship between the teacher and the student.

I'm not trying to explain this away by saying it's all about the institutions and the individuals have no responsibility. Of course the individuals have responsibility for their acts. But I cannot fail to see that part of the problem lies in the structures of power in which people operate.

And the Roman Catholic church might strike us as slightly similar in its organization.

You see, any claim to absolute truth, which many Tibetan and other Zen Buddhists will claim, is a claim to absolute power. To me the split into the relative truth and the ultimate truth, which is so widespread in Buddhism, also is a doctrine that underpins and legitimizes a particular structure of power. 

The lama or the roshi or the monk who has gained insight into these deep spiritual traditions and so forth, that person has access to God, essentially, and thereby carries the authority and the power in the eyes of their followers, to God himself. I find that to be a situation where, almost invariably, abuses of power are going to take place. 

Stephen Batchelor

Good overview of Singh brothers/RSSB guru financial mess

This LiiStudio story is about a month old, but I'm sharing it because it provides good background material on the fascinating drama surrounding the Singh brothers and their relative, Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas.

There are numerous strands in the tangled web of this tale of fraud, loans gone bad, and deceit.

Hopefully some of the strands will be made more clear in the upcoming November 14 hearing of the High Court of Delhi involving those responsible for payment of a $500 million award to a Japanese company that bought the Singh brothers' pharmaceutical firm.

Below I've highlighted in red mentions of the RSSB guru, since many people who visit this blog are interested in how the Dhillon family fits into these cases.

The key questions that remain to be answered in this mess appear to be these:

(1) Who were the ultimate beneficiaries of the money that was fraudulently siphoned from Religare and Fortis into shell companies? There's reason to believe that these beneficiaries included members of the Dhillon family and their close associates. This is relevant to the Daiichi award, since the Singh brothers, or at least Malvinder, are claiming the money needed to pay the award resides with other people.

(2) Were those beneficiaries involved in the financial fraud? If so, they could be charged as co-conspirators.

(3) Does the Dhillon family need to repay the hundreds of millions of dollars that reportedly went into their pockets from the Singh brothers following the sale of Ranbaxy? Was this a gift from the Singh brothers or a loan?

(4) Assuming the Dhillon family owes money to the Singh brothers, do they have the requisite assets to repay those loans? Documents required by the High Court of Delhi seemingly would answer this question.

New Delhi: Malvinder Mohan Singh and his youthful brother Shivinder Mohan Singh, former promoters of pharmacy firm Ranbaxy, hospital chain Fortis and monetary companies agency Religare, have been this week arrested by the Financial Offences Wing (EOW) of the Delhi Police for allegedly dishonest and inflicting a lack of Rs 2,397 crore to Religare Finvest Ltd (RFL), a subsidiary of Religare Enterprises.

The police additionally arrested former Religare Finvest MD Kavi Arora, in addition to ex-group CFO Anil Saxena and MD Sunil Godhwani.

The Singh brothers have been as soon as profitable businessmen who featured on Forbes’ listing of billionaires, working India’s main pharma firm. However they’re now in police custody, with a number of instances of dishonest and fraud, and allegations of siphoning cash utilizing a fancy internet of firms.

Whereas their present arrest is for alleged fraud associated to Religare Finvest, they’ve two extra investigations pending towards them. One is an allegation of siphoning round Rs 472 crore from Fortis Healthcare, whereas the opposite is about preserving Japanese drug main Daiichi Sankyo in the dead of night whereas promoting Ranbaxy to it that a US drug regulator was probing the agency. A Singapore tribunal had handed a Rs three,500 crore award in favour of Daiichi, which the Singh brothers are but to pay.

Who’re the Singh brothers?

Malvinder and Shivinder are grandsons of Bhai Mohan Singh, a businessman from Rawalpindi who settled in Delhi after Partition.

Bhai Mohan Singh took over the debt-ridden Ranbaxy from his cousins Ranbir and Gurbax Singh. Mohan Singh’s son Parvinder drove the agency to the highest of the Indian pharmaceutical business.

Parvinder’s sons Malvinder and Shivinder each graduated from Duke College’s Fuqua College of Enterprise within the US, and formally took over the corporate after Parvinder’s dying in 1999. They bought it to Daiichi Sankyo in 2008 for Rs 9,576 crore.

In accordance with officers, with the cash obtained from Ranbaxy’s sale, the brothers spent Rs 2,000 crore to repay loans, invested Rs 1,750 crore in Religare, and put Rs 2,230 crore in Fortis.

The remaining Rs 2,700 crore was reportedly transferred to Gurinder Singh Dhillon, head of the religious sect Radha Soami Satsang Beas, and his household.

The Religare Finvest case

In accordance with officers within the EOW, the Singh brothers, who have been in “absolute control” of Religare Enterprises Restricted (REL) and its subsidiaries, put Religare Finvest Restricted (RFL) in poor monetary situation by distributing loans to firms having no monetary standing, which they themselves managed.

“These companies then wilfully defaulted on repayments, causing a loss to RFL to the tune of Rs 2,397 crore,” an official defined.

In November 2016 and January 2017, RFL invested Rs 750 crore as fastened deposits within the Lakshmi Vilas Financial institution (LVB).

In July 2017, RFL reportedly found that LVB credited the proceeds of the deposits to RFL’s present account, and in addition debited an quantity of Rs 724 crore with out preserving RFL within the loop.

When RFL discovered in regards to the transfer, it instantly contacted the financial institution and in addition despatched authorized notices to the financial institution to re-institute the FDs, stating it had not given any go-ahead to dissolve them. Following a authorized discover, the financial institution agreed to revive the FDs.

5 months later, in December 2017, RFL reportedly obtained a communication from the financial institution, stating that loans amounting to Rs 532 crore and Rs 174.eight crore got to 2 firms held by the Singh brothers — RHC Holding and Ranchem Pvt Ltd respectively, factoring the FDs as collateral.

RFL then claimed that LVB didn’t ship it any info earlier than putting the FDs as safety towards the loans disbursed to the 2 firms.

RFL then filed a swimsuit within the Delhi Excessive Courtroom towards the financial institution for voluntarily placing the FDs as a assure towards a mortgage that it was not conscious of.

“RFL stated it had not executed any documentation for putting the FDs towards any loans that were wrongfully disbursed to the two companies controlled by Singh brothers,” an official defined.

RFL additionally made a proper criticism on this regard to EOW, and a case was registered. Following this, the Reserve Financial institution of India positioned LVB beneath its immediate corrective motion framework.

The Daiichi-Ranbaxy case

Malvinder and Shivinder have additionally been accused of siphoning funds via a fancy “web of companies” by Daiichi Sankyo, which additionally alleged that the brothers hadn’t disclosed the US drug regulator’s probe towards Ranbaxy on the time of sale.

Daiichi has additionally claimed that ANR Securities, RHC Holding, Ranchem and Malvinder maintain Prius Actual Property, wherein they put funds amounting to Rs 1,429.50 crore via debentures.

Daiichi additionally alleged that the brothers fraudulently diverted a sum of Rs 1,407.33 crore in Shimal Healthcare (which they personal collectively) via debentures and desire shares, and that this firm was additionally used to divert funds to different entities.

A debenture is a long-term bond or an unsecured mortgage issued by an organization with out pledging an asset, whereas desire share is a share which entitles the holder to a hard and fast dividend.

Daiichi is but to get well the Rs three,500 crore awarded to it by a Singapore tribunal, and has urged the Delhi Excessive Courtroom to connect the Singh brothers’ properties to get well the dues.

Case involving Fortis Healthcare

One other case entails Fortis Healthcare, which, in February this 12 months, had written to market regulator Securities and Trade Board of India to provoke authorized proceedings towards the brothers and get well Rs 472 crore, which have been allegedly taken out of the corporate via inter-corporate deposits to companies linked to them.

An inter-corporate deposit is an unsecured borrowing by corporates from different company entities. A company agency having surplus funds can thus lend to a different in want.

In October 2018, SEBI discovered the diversion of those funds to be “fraudulent” and directed Malvinder and Shivinder to repay this quantity, together with extra curiosity, to Fortis by January 2019. The brothers, nevertheless, did not make these funds.

What the brothers have mentioned in courtroom

Malvinder’s lawyer Manu Sharma informed a courtroom Friday that it was ‘Baba’ Dhillon, not his shopper, who was the beneficiary of the transactions.

“They don’t go after that person to whose doorstep the money leads because he’s heading some great religious organisation,” Sharma mentioned in courtroom.

Sharma additionally mentioned his shopper didn’t have a “single penny”.

Nonetheless, Shivinder, who has not engaged a lawyer, has mentioned he would “cooperate with the investigation and follow whatever order the court gives”.

How will the High Court of Delhi treat the RSSB guru?

What do you think will happen to Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas, when the High Court of Delhi has a hearing on November 14 involving those ordered to repay money owed to the Singh brothers and companies they once controlled, so a $500 million award can be made in connection with the sale of a pharmaceutical firm to a Japanese company? 

Dhillon and his family are part of those who have been ordered by the court to prepare documents showing their assets, though the Dhillon family has been excused from attending the hearing in person. The RSSB guru claims that he and his family owe no money.

Yesterday I wrote a blog post about using "inference to the best explanation" to deal with questions both in science and everyday life. So if you like, use your personal inference capabilities and leave a comment about your best prediction of what will happen to the RSSB guru and his family on November 14 when, to my knowledge, the hearing will be.

Here's a few possibilities to get your inference juices flowing. My inference is #3, but naturally I could be wrong.

(1) The High Court says that Dhillon and his family owe no money at all.

(2) The High Court says that Dhillon and his family owe some money, but not a lot.

(3) The High Court says that Dhillon and his family owe a lot of money, like hundreds of millions of dollars.

(4) The High Court says that Dhillon and his family owe a lot of money, and engaged in illegal activities. 

Gurinder Singh Dhillon