New York Bizman Alleges Corruption in Indian Defense Deals
Posted: Fri May 04, 2012 8:34 pm
Source: http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/ ... ls/?src=tpNew York Businessman Alleges Corruption in Indian Defense Deals
By HEATHER TIMMONS
C. Edmonds Allen, the New York businessman named in a trove of documents that activists India Against Corruption turned over to journalists last night, confirmed he was the source, and said that he worked with India defense dealmaker Abhishek Verma for a decade.
In an e-mailed response to questions from India Ink, Mr. Allen said he turned over more than a thousand pages of documents to Prashant Bhushan, a lawyer who works with the activist group.
“I confirm I sent him about 1,000-plus pages of evidence after CBI [the Central Bureau of Investigation] and the MOD [Ministry of Defense] refused to even acknowledge my complaints,” Mr. Allen said. The CBI has “suddenly” started to acknowledge his complaints, he said.
Mr. Allen said he has been trying for months to get someone in India to take the case. The documents he provided allege that Mr. Verma was involved in a series of payments made by foreign defense companies to Indian government officials.
An attorney for Mr. Verma said Thursday night he could not comment because he was in the hospital. Friday morning, a picture of Mr. Verma in a hospital bed circulated on Twitter.
In addition to the CBI and the Ministry of Defense, Mr. Allen said he contacted India’s Directorate of Enforcement , which investigates money laundering.
“The Enforcement Directorate in India, finally, after much pushing and prodding from an eminent lawyer called Ram Jethmalani, told me to get the evidence authenticated from the Indian Consulate in New York and who would than send it through diplomatic bags to India,” he said. “I spent two days and was finally surprised to be told that they cannot accept evidence against Abhishek Verma,” he wrote.
No one was answering the telephone number listed on the Directorate of Enforcement’s website Friday morning.
Mr. Allen said he has “no financial disputes with Abhishek Verma,” who has been a client of his for 10 years. The relationship between the two deteriorated when Mr. Verma “directed me to forge documents to defraud an EU citizen,” Mr. Allen said. Mr. Allen said that when he declined, Mr. Verma sent him an e-mail that read, in part:
“When I call you today by Skype let me know if you wish to compromise and stop this offensive attitude or should I send out nicely worded letters to all the agencies in India, Interpol, FinCEN, Serious Fraud Office UK and the press. It will be a bloodbath.”
[USUAL RANT]
No surprises here, it's an open secret that no defence deal can go through in India without kickbacks! We claim to make ICBM's but must depend on foreign imports whenever we need a halfway decent rifle! Of course the ordinary frontline soldier continues to be equipped with our "best of breed" INSAS rifle, while our "leaders" security details are issued imported carbines & rifles... after all they're not going to risk their own necks on a poorly built INSAS!!
[/USUAL RANT]