Below is a story in today's The Economic Times that appears to confirm previous reporting in the Indian financial press about the involvement of Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB), in financial fraud.
I've boldfaced the mentions of Dhillon and RSSB.
The story restates what already was known. Money from Religare Finvest was diverted into shell companies, many or most of which were controlled by followers of RSSB. These were unsecured loans that reportedly went into the pockets of the Dhillon family. See two previous posts of mine on this subject.
RSSB guru identified as beneficiary of fraudulent funds
RSSB guru had better have a big bank balance
It's difficult to tell what exactly happened here, but the following Bloomberg graphic I've shared previously seems to reflect the basic money flows mentioned in today's The Economic Times story.
The Singh brothers (and Sunil Godhwani) used shell companies to extract money from Fortis and Religare and funnel it into the Singh brothers' private holding company, RHC Holding. Unsecured loans then were made to Gurinder Singh Dhillon and his family, sometimes through other shell companies.
It's unclear why the money was never paid back.
There's been reporting that the Dhillon family invested the money they got into real estate deals that went bad. This would explain why the Singh brothers and Godhwani had to keep money circulating back and forth through shell companies to disguise the fact that money had gone out in unsecured loans that wasn't being paid back.
So important questions remain to be answered.
Such as: (1) Are investigators in India going to reveal who ended up with the money diverted into loans to shell companies, who orchestrated this financial fraud, and what the purpose of the fraud was?
(2) Assuming Gurinder Singh Dhillon and his family were the ultimate beneficiaries of much or all of this money, will Indian investigators have the political backing to delve into the Dhillon family's involvement in the illegal money transfers and hold them to account if they were active participants in the fraud?
Here's the story in The Economic Times.
NEW DELHI: Religare EnterprisesNSE -2.10 %’ former promoters Malvinder and Shivinder Mohan Singh had diverted public money from group entity Religare Finvest to shell companies and used it to “square off their personal liabilities”, the Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has said in its charge sheet against the brothers.
Executives at Religare Finvest, the group’s lending arm, had approved unsecured loans worth hundreds of crores to the shell companies within two hours of getting the proposals, even when these companies themselves had not sought the loans, the EOW said. The Singh brothers had joined the board of Religare Finvest in 2016 with the intention of diverting money to these 19 shell companies, it alleged.
The procedure adopted to peruse documents for approving loans was nothing but a “paper formality”, said the charge sheet filed last week in a local court, in a funds-misappropriation case filed by Religare Finvest. ET has seen the charge sheet.
Malvinder and Shivinder Singh had denied any wrongdoing on their part.
A “prominent feature” of the entire process was that these “shell/dummy companies” never made any request for loans, the charge sheet said.
It noted certain instances where the loan approvals were given almost immediately. On September 1, 2016, a loan of Rs 162 crore to Modland Wears Pvt Ltd was proposed at 3:14 pm and was approved at 4:36 pm — within 82 minutes. On the same day, another loan of Rs 165 crore to Artifice Property Pvt Ltd was approved in 103 minutes, it said.
The charge sheet alleged that after the Reserve Bank of India in 2014 redflagged abject lack of rigour deployed by Religare Finvest (RFL) in its corporate loan book, as opposed to strict scrutiny in SME loans, it resorted to “Google check”, as well Board of Industrial and Financial Reconstruction, Registrar of Companies, Cibil and KYC checks. “But no assessment of repayment capacity was done,” it said.
The agency said the only “precaution” it took was that the credit notes used to read “the corporate is known to the promoters of Religare and based on their comfort, we are proposing the deal”. The loans were cleared on "verbal instructions" of the promoters, it added.
Filing the charge sheets against the Singh brothers, former Religare chairman Sunil Godhwani and two others, the EOW said “despite being a listed company, no corporate governance norms were adhered with respect to the disbursal of loans”.
The EOW has questioned directors of the 19 shell/dummy companies named by it. Five of the directors told EOW that they were “namesake” directors and that they all were “followers of Radha Soami Satsang Beas and old acquaintance of late Parvinder Singh, father of Singh brothers”, the charge sheet said.
The “dummy” directors further claimed that they “signed the documents which were sent to their house through a messenger/employee of promoters at the year end and received salaries from the companies”, the EOW said. They also said none of them were signatories of the bank accounts of the companies.
According to the charge sheet, these directors claimed that all the 19 entities “were controlled and owned/operated by Malvinder and Shivinder Singh through their employees of RHC Holding Pvt Ltd (owned by the brothers) and its subsidiaries”, and that the companies were “not separate entities and were operating from the office of RHC Holding…”
“Malvinder and Shivinder used shell/ dummy entities along with the management of REL (Religare Enterprises) and RFL to divert the money from REL to their holding company, by adopting circuitous transaction to conceal the fake transactions and to make them appear genuine,” the EOW said.
During his questioning, Malvinder Singh told EOW that "Sunil Godhwani and his team at Religare managed and ran the affairs of RHC and its subsidiaries, decisions of money movement between REL, RFL, Babaji (Radha Soami Satsang chief Gurinder Singh) entities and RHC group entities".
Fastening entire responsibility on Godhwani and his team for "mismanagement" of RFL, Malvinder Singh told the EOW that "the management changes at REL in July 2016 were done at the direction and instructions of Babaji”.
Malvinder Singh has further alleged that "Religare and its subsidiaries owe money to RHC Holdings and not the other way around. Fern Healthcare, Modland (which are described as shell companies by the EOW) owe money to RHC Holdings and its subsidiaries and were fraudulently made part of the RHC Group without any diligence, valuation or any board approval. This was done by Shivinder Singh to shield Babaji and his family members to personally owe over Rs 1,000 crore to these entities," he has alleged.
Shivinder Singh, on the other hand, has denied the allegations stating that he took retirement from active life and went to Radha Soami Satsang Beas in 2016. He said he was completely unaware of the operations at REL and RFL.
This reminds me of the Trump impeachment proceedings except in the case of GSD there is evidence of actual wrongdoing.
Posted by: tucson | January 22, 2020 at 05:00 PM
Mr Brian
DESPITE the Singh Bros allegations you highlight, in a lame attempt to justify your view, what does the Delhi Police EOW CHARGE SHEET state?? Let me answer this for you......
Based on the very same article you refer to, It states
1) Malvinder and Shivinder used public money to settle THEIR PERSONAL LIABILITIES and not monies were onward lent it to GSD and his family!!!!
2) Monies were diverted to 19 shell companies CONTROLLED BY Singh Bros and not to GSD/His family or entities controlled by him/them!!!!!! Something which the Directors of these entities CONFIRM.
Should I continue? I think not. Just this suffices.
Charge sheet is what matters. Providing links to articles based on 'newspaper reports' of ongoing investigations, at this stage (stage of filing a charge sheet), isn't just a waste of time but also an insult to the intelligence of individuals neutral (like me) to the issue but with some understanding of law and investigation procedure.
Bluntly put - such articles with sensational yet grossly incorrect headlines only DAMAGE YOURS AND THIS BLOGS CREDIBILITY.
Posted by: Trevor Smith | January 22, 2020 at 07:50 PM
Trevor, did you even read this blog post? If so, did you read the boldfaced parts of the story? In case you didn't, here's part of what I boldfaced.
-----------------------
During his questioning, Malvinder Singh told EOW that "Sunil Godhwani and his team at Religare managed and ran the affairs of RHC and its subsidiaries, decisions of money movement between REL, RFL, Babaji (Radha Soami Satsang chief Gurinder Singh) entities and RHC group entities".
Fastening entire responsibility on Godhwani and his team for "mismanagement" of RFL, Malvinder Singh told the EOW that "the management changes at REL in July 2016 were done at the direction and instructions of Babaji”.
Malvinder Singh has further alleged that "Religare and its subsidiaries owe money to RHC Holdings and not the other way around. Fern Healthcare, Modland (which are described as shell companies by the EOW) owe money to RHC Holdings and its subsidiaries and were fraudulently made part of the RHC Group without any diligence, valuation or any board approval. This was done by Shivinder Singh to shield Babaji and his family members to personally owe over Rs 1,000 crore to these entities," he has alleged.
----------------------
The way it appears, money was loaned by Religare to shell companies controlled in full or in part by the Dhillon family and their close associates (RSSB initiates, for example). Instead of those loans being paid back, Sunil Godhwani and others engaged in "round trip" fraudulent transactions.
So Malvinder, to the extent he was part of the scheme, was repaying himself, so to speak, via those fraudulent transactions in which money wasn't really repaid to Religare -- it just looked like it was.
As i said in this post, the big question is who ended up with the real money. And why was this complex scheme set into motion in the first place? Sunil Godhwani was installed in his position by Gurinder Singh Dhillon. Godhwani then engaged in fraud that, according to numerous press reports, resulted in huge amounts of money flowing into the pockets of the Dhillon family via transactions engineered by Godhwani and others.
I realize you haven't been following all this as closely as I have. You should do more reading in my previous blog posts on this subject. Then you'd educate yourself about why the RSSB guru certainly hasn't been absolved of wrongdoing. If nothing else, the High Court of Delhi is still expecting him to repay hundreds of millions of dollars of loans he got. I believe another hearing about this is coming up in February.
Posted by: Brian Hines | January 22, 2020 at 08:15 PM
Mr Brian,
First what I'd like to clarify is that there no point being overtly presumptuous (to the point of believing you realise) about my understanding and knowledge of the subject matter or should I say the lack thereof. This blog and your articles aren't the only information sources available on this subject matter. Funny it is, that a now ex Director/Financial Controller at one of embroiled Religare entity and I go back ~22 years as professionals, colleagues and friends.
More to follow..... Time crunch.
Posted by: Trevor Smith | January 22, 2020 at 08:47 PM
Trevor, I look forward to you sharing more about your special knowledge of the Singh brothers, Godhwani, and Dhillon family financial fraud saga.
I responded to your initial comment because you said IN ALL CAPS that the title of my blog post damaged my and my blog's credibility, even though the conclusions I drew were supported by The Economic Times story and previous reporting by the Indian financial press.
You seemed not to understand that so far the Dhillon family is still obligated by the High Court of Delhi to repay what appears to be hundreds of millions of dollars that they got from companies once controlled by the Singh brothers and Godhwani.
So until all of this tangled financial mess is unraveled (assuming it ever is, given the vagaries of the Indian justice system), I think you should be cautious about assuming you know what the outcome will be -- and of accusing me of spreading falsehoods when I did nothing of the sort. I simply shared my informed opinion about where this mess is at the moment, and what questions remain to be answered.
Posted by: Brian Hines | January 22, 2020 at 09:02 PM
U should change the title to what malvinder singh says about babaji and not what the charge sheet is mentioning...if malvinder singh is so innocent then why he is still in jail
Posted by: Hhhhhh | January 22, 2020 at 10:10 PM
@ This reminds me of the Trump impeachment proceedings except in the
@ case of GSD there is evidence of actual wrongdoing.
Dhillon controlled entities were identified in court charges so the
family is responsible for repayment of illegal loans. GSD though
hasn't been provably fingered as masterminding any of the
illegality.
The "very stable genius" however is on much shakier ground. Just
pray no one will try to adjudicate either case here.
Posted by: Dungeness | January 22, 2020 at 10:45 PM
If Shivinder Singh is so innocent then why is he in jail?
If Godhwani is so innocent then why is he in jail?
The question has been answered.
Real Estate.
All the money went to real estate that didn’t have much ROI.
Posted by: Q | January 23, 2020 at 10:40 AM
Hi Brian
As with any new information, multiple possibilities emerge.
This is new...
"A “prominent feature” of the entire process was that these “shell/dummy companies” never made any request for loans, the charge sheet said.
" It noted certain instances where the loan approvals were given almost immediately. On September 1, 2016, a loan of Rs 162 crore to Modland Wears Pvt Ltd was proposed at 3:14 pm and was approved at 4:36 pm — within 82 minutes. On the same day, another loan of Rs 165 crore to Artifice Property Pvt Ltd was approved in 103 minutes, it said."
This suggests the shell companies may have had nothing to do with these loans. Only their names were listed by the Singhs and Godwani on the loans, and possibly kited checks.
This is the first time we have seen this new detail.
And yet, here is the other piece of new fact based direct witness testimony you have provided that proves the shell companies carried substantial responsibility in a corrupt network linked up RSSB Statsangis most close to Gurinder.
"The EOW has questioned directors of the 19 shell/dummy companies named by it. Five of the directors told EOW that they were “namesake” directors and that they all were “followers of Radha Soami Satsang Beas and old acquaintance of late Parvinder Singh, father of Singh brothers”, the charge sheet said."
"The “dummy” directors further claimed that they “signed the documents which were sent to their house through a messenger/employee of promoters at the year end and received salaries from the companies”, the EOW said. They also said none of them were signatories of the bank accounts of the companies."
" According to the charge sheet, these directors claimed that all the 19 entities “were controlled and owned/operated by Malvinder and Shivinder Singh through their employees of RHC Holding Pvt Ltd (owned by the brothers) and its subsidiaries”, and that the companies were “not separate entities and were operating from the office of RHC Holding…”
Wow. This new evidence is the strongest testimony yet of an RSSB run scheme. That's hard testimony.
Posted by: Spence Tepper | January 23, 2020 at 02:52 PM
The answer is in the FOG...
(Friends Of Gurinder)
Posted by: Spence Tepper | January 23, 2020 at 05:29 PM
"Malvinder and Shivinder Mohan Singh had diverted public money from group entity Religare Finvest to shell companies and used it to “square off their personal liabilities” the Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing.
I find the phrase “square off their personal liabilities" maddeningly vague. Does it mean the Dehli Police have concluded that the Singh bros. owed hundreds of crores to the Dhillon family and were trying to pay it back with the funnelled funds? That seems a far fetched possibility to say the least. It suggests that the Dhillon family at some point loaned the Singh bros hundreds of crores, and the bros were just trying to pay it back. Ridiculous.
Where is this charge sheet? Why did the press post it in full?
Posted by: j | January 23, 2020 at 06:46 PM
It is worthwhile to recapitulate that Singh Brothers owe 74.12 Crores to Dhillons as stated in previous article . It is beyond digestion that Singh Brothers get only 23 billions Whereas Dhillons 32 billions. Rather Dhillons pledged shares and lost enough against loans of Singh Brothers. Vicious circle started from haste of Daichi in claiming damages after reinvestment of amount received from Ranbaxy and even before still pending decision on appeal of Singh Brothers in Singapore subject to which decision on Appeal in India would modify its operation in future. Deadlock in Repayments from Real Estates has further aggravated hardship for Singh Bros in paying to Japanese which has led to vicious circle of casual approach taken in solving crisis. Retirement of Shivinder followed by his constant custody has blocked the sincere efforts which could make on his part for which he deserves a chance to reset the Fall of an Empire like revival of Ranbaxy in hands of Sunfarm
Posted by: Subhash Arora | January 23, 2020 at 08:39 PM
To be fair, it did always seem like Daiichi had it in for the Singhs doing things that made it almost impossible to repay. It was almost like Daiichi didn’t care as much about getting settlement order as they did seeing the Singhs go to jail. But mistakes were made on both sides. This whole thing has gotten way too complicated to get my head around. And there are still so many unknowns.
Posted by: Sonia 🦋 | January 23, 2020 at 09:07 PM
"It is worthwhile to recapitulate that Singh Brothers owe 74.12 Crores to Dhillons as stated in previous article"
What previous article? In any case, no legal statement has been produced that declares the Singh bros. owe 74.12 crores (over 800 million dollars) to the Dhillion family. What you infer from what's printed in an Indian newspaper isn't the same thing as a legal fact.
"It is beyond digestion that Singh Brothers get only 23 billions Whereas Dhillons 32 billions. Rather Dhillons pledged shares and lost enough against loans of Singh Brothers."
Huh?
"Vicious circle started from haste of Daichi in claiming damages after reinvestment of amount received from Ranbaxy and even before still pending decision on appeal of Singh Brothers in Singapore subject to which decision on Appeal in India would modify its operation in future."
Again, I have no idea what you're trying to say here. The question at hand is whether the Singh bros. owed hundreds of millions of dollars to the Dhillion family, and were trying to pay it back by funneling funds from the corporations they controlled. That is what the "charge sheet" implies, but where is the evidence?
"Deadlock in Repayments from Real Estates has further aggravated hardship for Singh Bros in paying to Japanese which has led to vicious circle of casual approach taken in solving crisis. Retirement of Shivinder followed by his constant custody has blocked the sincere efforts which could make on his part for which he deserves a chance to reset the Fall of an Empire like revival of Ranbaxy in hands of Sunfarm"
However complicated we want to make this issue, it really comes down to the question of where the 800 million dollars went.
1) We know the missing money was funnelled from the Singh bros' corporations to the Dhillion family.
2) But we don['t know why it was funnelled, or that the Dhillon family paid the money back to the Singh bros, or that there's any evidence that the Dhillon family was somehow "owed" that 800 million and the Singh bros. were embezzling the money to pay it back.
All we know is that $800M was siphoned out the corporations and it went to the Dhillon family, and that the people who are legally on the hook for the siphoning are currently in prison.
It might be the stupidest crime in the history of the world, or it might be a case of religious zealots who wanted to please their guru.
Posted by: j | January 24, 2020 at 06:55 AM
Hi J
You summarized
"All we know is that $800M was siphoned out the corporations and it went to the Dhillon family, and that the people who are legally on the hook for the siphoning are currently in prison."
Unfortunately, IMHO, the details are a little murkier. Other people, some of whom are the folks now in jail, had control over the Dhillon family bank accounts and used them to launder money. They moved money into those accounts and then out again.
Posted by: Spence Tepper | January 24, 2020 at 10:45 AM
@ Spencer -- "Other people, some of whom are the folks now in jail, had control over the Dhillon family bank accounts and used them to launder money. They moved money into those accounts and then out again."
It may be that part of their intent in siphoning the money was to "launder" it, but that still doesn't explain the salient issue: where is the money now?
Laundering money generally takes the form of what Joe Kennedy did -- give large sums of dirty cash to the Catholic church and then get it back again.
Something seems to have gone horribly wrong in this money laundering scheme. In this case, the "church" (the Dhillon family) seems to have kept the money instead of giving it back to the siphoners. I can't say it's a fact that this happened, but on the other hand, I've yet to hear an explanation as to where these 800 million dollars ended up.
Posted by: j | January 24, 2020 at 12:04 PM
Hi J
You asked
"It may be that part of their intent in siphoning the money was to "launder" it, but that still doesn't explain the salient issue: where is the money now?"
According to the RHL EOW, this is the crucial issue.
If the Singh brothers and Godhwani moved money in and out, perhaps for short selling loans, then it is possible they have lost nothing but gained greatly by damaging thy companies the led. Who was in on the scheme?
The crucial question is the one you asked... Where did the money finally end up? It could be much more than what was originally stolen.
And that is where we will find the number one suspects.
All we know is that it didn't end up in these accounts.
We can't say Gurinder received the money. We don't know its actual termination.
Posted by: Spence Tepper | January 24, 2020 at 05:23 PM
If short selling stock on the companies you run is a way to cover other real estate losses, then mass producing loans on paper and siphoning funds from those companies is the best assurance your corporate profits will drop visibly, assuring a drop in stock price, assuring your profits on short selling.
For this to work you need a system of shell companies and bank accounts that are not listed in your name, and the cooperation of the principles. You need rotating loans, temporarily, to use as unregistered short selling loans. You also need the means to purposefully degrade the profitability of the company. All these are elements extant in this story.
The evidence for this is the rapid turnaround of cash into and out of the Gurinder family accounts. That's how stock loans work. They are only needed for a day or two. In short selling, they may be used for a few months at best, especially if the stock price is dynamic.
The part of the story that is missing are the terminating accounts where the much higher amounts of cash on the short sell stock sales went. That would be multiples of the amounts seen in the accounts used for laundering the short selling loans.
So the story is missing it's most vital piece in the journey to recover the stolen monies. But the evidence of these rapid turn deposits, mirroring stock loans and short selling loans, suggests when found, there will be more than enough.
Posted by: Spence Tepper | January 25, 2020 at 06:27 AM
@Spencer --
I guess it's possible that the Singh bros had a scheme to hand out bogus loans to purposely crash their companies in order to benefit from covert massive speculation in short sales. But given there's no exchange record of them making short sales, or evidence that they got rich from shorting their stock, it doesn't seem likely to me. Even the most corrupt or inept corporate leaders know that destroying their company and reputation isn't a sound plan.
What's more likely to me is that the loans to the Dhillon family were handed out for a single purpose -- to benefit the Dhillon family. That is, they weren't handed out as part of a strategy to launder money and use it for financial speculation.
The Dhillon family says it didn't request these loans, but what else are they going to say? It's significant to me that the family does admit (because they probably had to, it being of record) that they received salaries from these bogus companies.
I wonder how big those salaries were? I'm betting that they weren't paltry.
The fact that the Dhillon family admits they were paid to be bogus chiefs of shell companies says a lot to me about their Honest Living.
And of course, one of these Dhillon family members is Gurinder. I'm hoping we someday find out if he too was paid a salary by the Brothers Singh.
Posted by: j | January 25, 2020 at 09:24 AM
Spence,
Yes, some key elements are still missing.
I am saddened by the whole affair. Particularly, after death of Babaji's wife.
Only a handful of people know the actual facts in this case. Their actions and inactions have placed them in suspect positions. For me, the question is, do these individuals see it as their duty to share the plain truth?
The case involves multiple celebrities: young billionaires, right handman of a guru, Guru of RSSB and his family.
Celebrity status is not only a priviledge but a martyrdom. Not everyone can handle the burden. Avoidance in the first place and handling of suspect situations is a test of moral capacity or ethical intelligence for anyone in a position of influence.
It is what it is. I am just sharing my thoughts.
R. Tagore "We are closest to greatness when we are great in humility."
Posted by: Di | January 25, 2020 at 10:23 AM
Hi J
You wrote
"What's more likely to me is that the loans to the Dhillon family were handed out for a single purpose -- to benefit the Dhillon family. That is, they weren't handed out as part of a strategy to launder money and use it for financial speculation."
The rotation of loans into and out of those Gurinder family accounts suggests another leg to the story. The money didn't stop there. We know everyone was involved, passively or actively. But where did it end?
You wrote
" But given there's no exchange record of them making short sales, or evidence that they got rich from shorting their stock, it doesn't seem likely to me. Even the most corrupt or inept corporate leaders know that destroying their company and reputation isn't a sound plan."
We don't know much at all about where the money went after it visited the Gurinder family accounts, only that it did so for very short periods
The most corrupt corporate leaders do exactly as I've suggested, selling off the company in pieces, or short selling when they know in advance they aren't going to meet their quarterly numbers.
Short selling only works to the extent you know things are going to get worse. And using your largess and power to manipulate stock prices is a very old tradition. Warren Buffet made his first billions off the practice.
But why it makes sense here are two reasons. First, the rotation of funds in and out of the accounts. And second, the Singhs and Suny knew they could never siphon enough money to cover the real estate losses. There was no hope in that strategy. But short selling off a much larger base of corporate stock would do just fine. The only problem would be the short term loans needed.
In all cases, the money trail is incomplete. Once known, the truth will emerge.
Posted by: Spence Tepper | January 25, 2020 at 12:12 PM
In short, it seems the guru is innocent, as if there was any doubt to begin with.
Let the festivities commence ..,
Posted by: Georgy Porgy | January 25, 2020 at 04:09 PM
The reason to use offshore companies is to hide the details and make them inaccessible to the authorities because the offshore company is in a different jurisdiction and the authorities don’t have any easy access to the company accounts or bank accounts.
Clearly nobody just gives out loans for no reason. Obviously, the recipient of the loan is party to the transaction regardless of whether there was a formal request for a loan.
I cant remember the last time I was given a loan without requesting it.
GSD is clever. He purposely set it up so if things go tits up. He will be in the clear.
Things have gone tits up and his wife was the link to him. Luckily for him, she died just before she could be called to court to testify.
Now he can turn around and say “I have no idea, M’Lord” to any question he is asked
Or he can say “My wife has the answer M’lord – but unfortunately for the court, she is dead”
Sunil Godhwani obviously has answers but he will say whatever he needs to say to protect his guru.
This is corruption at the highest level.
The question of where the money is:
Its either with the singhs or its with the dhillons.
Even a child can figure the answer out from there.
If Malvinder had the money, why would he have lost his shares and his fortune?
Why would he be begging GSD to help out?
Clearly when he did business with the Dhillons he had no idea just how corrupt they were.
GSD claim he was not given any money, but was given a gift of billions.
When was the last time you were given a gift of billions of dollars?
And even if it was true, did he not have a moral obligation to help the person who give him that gift?
I don’t know about anyone else, but if someone gave me a gift of even a Million dollars, I would be eternally grateful and would help them if they needed help, even if I had to take a huge personal loss to help them. Seems like GSD couldn’t care less about the person who he himself claims give him a gift of billions.
Something seems fishy
at least to me
Posted by: Something seems fishy | January 26, 2020 at 07:09 AM
Spencer --
The problem with bringing short-selling into the mix of possibilities s that any kind of financial instrument transactions are recorded on the stock exchanges. If we know of corporate leaders shorting their own stock, it's because it's always recorded.
I know of cases where corporate leaders *sold* their corporate stock at suspect times, but I've yet to hear of anyone who actively *shorted* their stock shares while being a high officer of a corporation. That includes Warren Buffet btw, who did short the market early in his career...but that's a very different thing from shorting the shares of Berkshire Hathaway.
I'm sure one of the first places the investigators looked was share activity at the Singh bros' corporations. We've heard nothing about unusual shorting activity at all, or any news of stock or futures activity related to any of the Singh bros, so I don't see why it serves to even bring it up as a likely reason behind the scandal.
Posted by: j | January 26, 2020 at 09:56 AM
Even though the ED
- states to the Court that of the total Rs 2,036.69 crore of estimated proceeds of crime, investigation over Rs 300 crores has been completed and that the investigation in respect of identification of remaining proceeds of crime and accused that are involved in money laundering is in progress
- that they are in the “process of issuing letters rogatory (LRs) to foreign jurisdictions to identify proceeds of crime parked abroad
AND
- the conduit companies were associated with the Singh brothers clearly established on the basis that the directors of the said companies HAVE ACCEPTED THAT THEY WERE RELATIVES OR ASSOCIATES OF PROMOTERS (Singh brothers).
The finger points to the RSSB Guru. LOL
Posted by: A Wise 🦉 | January 30, 2020 at 05:51 AM
Wise owl...the finger points to the RSSB guru because that’s where Brian and his commenters want to point it. That’s what they have proven to themselves and want to prove in this blog.
I have said it before the truth will come out. Patience is needed even more because the guru will not react.
Posted by: Anon | January 30, 2020 at 08:37 AM
Wise 🦉
You seem to be tracking the developments closely.
You are right about the amount that's been investigated completely ~300crores, the process of issuing letters rogatory (LRs) to foreign jurisdictions, the conduit companies were associated with the Singh brothers and that investigations are still on for the rest amount.
In the latest court hearing the public prosecutor for the ED, told the court that the brothers, along with co-accused Sunil Godhwani and others, are “involved in process of acquisition, layering, possession, concealment, use and projection of proceeds of crime generated out of criminal activities”.
The charge sheet elaborates the alleged role of the two brothers, says - “Malvinder and Shivinder Mohan Singh incorporated and used multiple conduit companies for the purpose of siphoning off public funds from Religare Finvest Limited (RFL) by way of sanctioning and disbursal of loans under corporate loan book (CLB)”.
It also alleges that the funds “siphoned off” by the brothers and Godhwani through sanctioning, evergreening, layering of CLB loans were ultimately utilised for repaying existing liabilities of the company of Singh brothers “or the acquisition of properties for the benefit of Malvinder and Shivinder Mohan Singh.
Damn it so much evidence against RSSB Guru in the charge sheet filed and still the Guru is a free bird.
Something is indeed fishy. LOL.
Posted by: Trevor Smith | January 30, 2020 at 11:38 AM
‘Short-selling’ is not when an officer of a company sells public shares in that company because she/he know they are going to fall in price - that is ‘insider trading’ which is illegal. I don’t think Tepper has got the slightest notion of what it is he is talking about.
The guru is not an officer of the company in question, and any such records could easily be checked as j points out - this is merely yet another trumped-up hang’m high charge in the online court of conjecture and hearsay raised by the peanut gallery of ignorant nutty ex-satsangi conspiracy theorists. None of whom have training or knowledge in the subject at hand.
Posted by: Georgy Porgy | January 30, 2020 at 12:34 PM
Underlining the role of RHC Holding, the agency said the company acquired Rs 150 crore of proceeds of crime and “utilised the said amount in repayment of its existing liability towards RFL by projecting it as untainted”. It added: “RHC group entities have not only been used as conduit companies but in some cases are the ultimate beneficiary of the proceeds of crime.”
Worth repeating: “RHC group entities have not only been used as conduit companies but in some cases are the ultimate beneficiary of the proceeds of crime.”
Also, they have substantially added more counts criminal charges to each of the Singh brothers' in this investigation. Which will result in added time per crime to their sentencing. This will force them to divulge every possible secret they could be hiding to protect themselves or others.
Read more at:
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/company/corporate-trends/religare-fraud-ed-to-reach-out-to-foreign-countries-to-identify-proceeds-of-crime-parked-abroad/articleshow/73753742.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst
Posted by: Sonia | January 30, 2020 at 01:24 PM
It doesn't matter if he's an officer or not anymore... what they are looking at are all beneficiaries. Anyone receiving money from criminal sources and using that money is guilty of committing a crime. That's where there at now. You can call it a gift all you want but if the money you draw from your bank account is from illegal sources or was laundered before it arrived. You, along with the sender, are also in shit.
These little things they call laws...
Posted by: Sonia | January 30, 2020 at 01:30 PM
Georgy
Insider trading is when anyone, not just an officer of a company, has inside knowledge of any significant changes to a publicly traded company or its performance that has not yet been made public. And they use this secret information to profit personally.
What they do with it is up to them. If the company is about to post higher earnings than budgeted, or was bought by an even better performing comment, and they go out and buy up stock to make a huge profit when the news becomes public, that's insider trading.
And when they know from inside knowledge the performance will soon drop and they sell their shares before it becomes public knowledge and the stock price drops, that's also insider trading.
And when they know their cousins are purposefully siphoning profits to drop the quarterly margins lower than budget, and they use this to short sell on loan many more shares than they currently own, and in fact sell their shares and use that money, along with the siphoned money, as loans for short selling, that's insider trading also.
You don't have to have any connection with the company. You can be the cousin of its principal officers. Or just a friend. It's the information and how you use it that constitutes insider trading.
This was not presented as fact, as you are claiming, but conjecture.
Why launder money through those accounts? This is one reason... A way to reap huge profits, enough to cover the real estate losses.
You don't seem familiar with how short selling works
Posted by: Spence Tepper | January 30, 2020 at 01:35 PM
Hi J
Short selling is not illegal. But a scheme using illegally siphoned funds to buy short sell stock, which is also a means to predictably cut earnings, that's illegal.
Any FOG (Friend of Gurinder) could do it, doesn't need to be the Singhs. They can keep their names out of the registry.
Posted by: Spence Tepper | January 30, 2020 at 01:44 PM
Not trying to be scary about it, just sayin’ even if a relative gives you money, if that money was laundered or was the result of criminal activities then you should notify your bank and have them send it back. Otherwise you’ll be held accountable as well. Even India has really cracked down on these laws. But having a team of top notch lawyers always helps... as well as political connections. But for future reference it’s a bad practice. Not a mistake you’d want to make again.
Posted by: Sonia | January 30, 2020 at 01:53 PM
Tainted donors - something nonprofits and charities must be careful about (this may not be a big deal in India but it’s serious in the U.S.).
https://nonprofitquarterly.org/when-a-donor-becomes-tainted/
Posted by: Sonia | January 30, 2020 at 02:10 PM
Anyway, I’m just so sorry for all the people affected by this... at least 50+ people or more. It’s an agonizing and worrisome thing to go through I’m sure. Looks like this case will go on for at least a few more years. Just very sad for everyone. We all make mistakes but some are far more difficult to fix than others. 😞
Posted by: Sonia Taylor | January 30, 2020 at 02:45 PM
I think GSD will be just fine. We should be very careful. You dont know what you have done in previous lives.
He will be fine. All of us on this blog wont. Just my belief now . Watch what happens in our lives.
Posted by: Arjuna | January 30, 2020 at 07:30 PM
@Arjuna
I’m certain GSD will be OK. But it’s an agonizing ordeal for everyone else. That’s what I’m saying. Just very stressful for all involved no doubt.
Posted by: Sonia | January 30, 2020 at 08:09 PM
Even if GSD did go to jail I can assure you he wouldn’t really be there. 😂😂😂
It wouldn’t affect him at all. He’s not bound by bars. He’s got skills. That’s one thing I do know.
But not gonna happen anyway.
Posted by: sonia | January 30, 2020 at 09:17 PM
@ sonia
It's not agonising let Him do his work.
Posted by: Arjuna | January 31, 2020 at 06:52 AM
But it’s an agonizing ordeal for everyone else. That’s what I’m saying. Just very stressful for all involved no doubt.
Posted by: Sonia | January 30, 2020 at 08:09 PM
There is more agony, stress and frustration in posters here due to their repeated failure to pin the blame on the RSSB Guru
Posted by: Trevor Smith | January 31, 2020 at 10:58 AM