SCAMSTERS INC.

(clickme)


I have been gettin mails from a bunch of guys, scammed by a company called "Royal Garden VIllas " located in Bangalore.The majority of their customers are NRI's, Foreigners and Expats from the US, Canada and other countries.
Some customers have requested me to publish their views. So here goes....

> They have taken money from me promising construction of villa (RG Villas) in Bangalore within 8 months. That did not happen. I have contacted them in Vancouver, Canada. They are not responding to my calls. I am planning on filing a police report and getting a court order to freeze their assets. ***Investors - Proceed with Caution***
sujoy_majumdar@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.com(E-mail hidden)

Source: Email

Openly expressing lack of confidence in government officers, the high court on Thursday indicated it may call for a thorough probe by
an independent agency like the CBI into the mining and forest lease scams.

"Our natural resources are being exploited and exported by individual licence holders with the connivance of officials. While our industries like Mysore Steel are closed for want of raw material, throwing workers on the streets, iron ore is exported from everywhere, enriching foreign countries," a division bench headed by chief justice P D Dinakaran said.

"While the market rate is Rs 2,000 to 3,000, they finalize the deal for Rs 100 a tonne. Can this doing away with natural wealth be called globalization? We don't have confidence in your (government) officers and rather prefer an independent authority to investigate quarrying, mining and export of iron ore, besides leasing of forests for 999 years," the bench told the government advocate while adjourning a batch of petitions filed by parties including Mysore Minerals.

Source:TOI

The SC/ST Employees' Association here has demanded the suspension of two former divisional controllers of the KSRTC, Mangalore division, for the alleged Rs 54-lakh diesel scam at the Dharmasthala depot.

They have also demanded that the corporation revoke the suspension of the Dharmasthala Depot Manager K K Venugopal and Assistant Storekeeper Achyuta, saying that they were being framed in the scam.
Lolaksha, honorary president of the Association and P B D'Sa, president, People's Union Civil Liberties (PUCL), on Thursday alleged that the KSRTC administrative staff were involved in the recent fraud and they were making the employees scapegoats.

He demanded that the government attach the properties of the two divisional controllers --M N Venkatesh (now in Kolar) and A S R Nawaz (now serving in Hassan) and probe the scam.

Lolaksha noted that the diesel was being supplied to the Dharmasthala depot by tankers and the scam pertained to 24 truck loads of diesel worth Rs 54 lakh. In reality, the lone truck (KA 25-5949), which was transporting fuel to Dharmasthala depot, had not even crossed the Kannur check post, he said.

Giving the dates on which fuel had not reached to the depot, he said as per records, the Dharmasthala depot should have the invoice copies on receipt of the fuel, but the Dharmasthala depot did not have the invoices on those dates. But at the same time, he alleged, that somebody had prepared false invoices with forged signatures of the Dharmasthala depot manager and sent it to Bangalore for payment.

Lolaksha maintained that the statistical officer S J Shanbagh and other suspended personnel like Geetanjali, assistant finance officer, Haribara, divisional assistant storekeeper, Chidambara, finance manager, Roy Rodrigues, depot inspector, were involved in this huge scam and demanded attaching of their properties also till inquiry was completed.

He said that the argument that Dharmastala depot manager had not given the invoices to the divisional office at Mangalore does not hold water as this practice was not in vogue in six depots under Mangalore KSRTC namely Madikeri, Kundapur, Dharmasthala, Puttur and two depots in Mangalore.

``In case this is taken as a mistake on the part of managers, all six depot managers have to be suspended,'' he said.
Lolaksha pointed out that since June last, there were discrepancies in the totals given by the Indian Oil Corporation and the Dharmasthala depot. Despite this, the Mangalore office was passing the bills - which is cause for suspicion.

He said that the two divisional controllers were severely punishing the bus drivers, conductors for small mistakes and to say that they have overlooked such a big fraud is ridiculous. He also alleged that this scam had taken place in connivance with the higher officials.
Lolaksha pointed out that of the eight invoices given to the depots during the time of supplying fuel by the oil company, four are retained by the depot and the other four are given to the Mangalore office.

The bills are sanctioned and sent to Bangalore for payment only after the proper tally of figures. He said that this showed that the fraud had occurred at the Mangalore office and not at Dharmasthala depot. He said that the association was conducting its own inquiry to find out who forged the signatures and once the identity of the accused was established, they would send the documents to the government.

Source:TOI

This may not be a one-off case. Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) plans to initiate criminal action against a BSNL women employee
who tried to take over a site allocated to another person with fictitious documents.

Chanamma Shivalingegowda was alloted a 30x40 feet site in Koramangala on May 15, 1984. She took the possession certificate of the site after registering the lease-cum-sale deed with BDA on July 20. The site was left vacant for a long time.

Taking advantage of this, Esther Sarojini Alex, a BSNL employee, approached the BDA posing as Chanamma to register an absolute sale deed, claiming to have lost her original documents. Detailed investigations revealed it to be an attempt to grab the site illegally.

In a press statement on Monday, BDA has asked site allottees with a lease-cum-sale agreement to immediately apply for the absolute sale deed to prevent such cases.

Source:TOI

Hyderabad:
Did you get a mail from your close friend, who was in dire need of money, as he/she got stuck in a mishap, that too in no man’s land? If your answer is in the affirmative, then don’t rush or panic and try to bail out your friend by sending the money.

Your friend’s personal mail account could have been hacked to generate the mail in order to fleece you. The Central Crime Station (CCS) officials warn you to crosscheck the facts before jumping into action.

‘’If you find e-mails like these in your inbox, don’t believe them.

They could be fraud messages sent by a trickster to cheat you. If you want to help financially, discuss the issue with your friend and do verify the exact location and position of the sender with his close relatives,’’ said CCS DCP RS Praveen Kumar in a statement.

Another oft-used modus operandi is by sending mails or short message service (SMS) saying that the recipient has won a UK lottery.

The officials also inform that UK lotteries are not sent through email or SMSes.

‘’There were many cases in which the prize money was mentioned and the recipient persuaded to send some money for processing.

One should not send any money for processing,’’ Praveen Kumar informed. Saying that e-mails and personal information should not be shared, he said it was always better to delete mails from unknown recipients.

For enquiries or information, one can visit www.hyderabadpolice.

gov.in or call the cyber crime cell at 040-27852040.

Source:Express Buzz

Worried about his son's oversleeping habit, R R Rajagopalaiah Shetty sought divine intervention. He was instead taken for a
ride by a neighbour and lost over 1 kg gold jewellery, 13 kg silver and few lakhs in cash.

Shetty of Gokula in Yeshwantpur was duped not once, but a number of times over two months, by R Shridhar. The latter performed a number of poojas he claimed would cure Shetty's son's problem.

A few more residents of the neighbourhood have claimed they lost money by investing in a chit fund run by Sridhar, who is now absconding.

Shetty's son Nagaprasad had a peculiar problem. He went to sleep at night like anyone else, but woke up only the next evening. This worried his father. Sridhar seized the opportunity posing as a part-time soothsayer, and offered to cure the problem by performing a `suvarna dighbandana'.

He first asked Shetty's wife to put her jewellery in a `kalasa' and place them in four corners of the house for three months. He returned within 15 days and took some silverware and money from the family for another pooja at his own house. He again returned in a month's time and took more money and silver articles for further poojas. This time, he also took away gold for a `rudrapuja'. At the end of two months, Sridhar made away with 900 gm gold, 13 kg silver and Rs 3.7 lakh.

Shetty realized they were duped only when Sridhar disappeared and lodged a complaint with Yeshwantpur police.

In the chit fund fraud, Sridhar is said to have duped many people to the tune of over Rs 13 lakh. Three women were also involved in the racket.

Source:TOI

A 52-year-old constable accused of cheating a jeweller has managed to evade police questioning by adopting the time-tested formula of
getting admitted to hospital by feigning illness.

On three occasions in the past one month when Milind Salvi was brought to the court, he claimed to be suffering from chest pain and thus escaped from being sent to the police lock-up. The police also wanted to question Salvi as the jeweller's son had gone missing ever since the jeweller began demanding his money back. The court has now ordered a medical examination of Salvi by the JJ Hospital.

Salvi, attached to the local arms unit, had promised Mukesh Choridia, owner of Parasmal Jewellers, Mohili Village, Saki Naka, that he would get gold at throwaway prices from a consignment seized by the customs department.

Mukesh's father Parasmal told TOI, "Salvi approached my son through a common friend, Uttam Vagare, in March 2007 and made this offer. My son was new in the trade and did not realise that he was getting duped.''

Over a period of one year Mukesh paid Salvi Rs 22 lakh. Parasmal said it was too late when his son learnt about the fraud in April 2008. "We approached Salvi on July 4 demanding the money. He then had told us that he would pay it back only if they can bring Vagare to him, in whose presence, the deal was struck.''

However, a day or two after the meeting, Mukesh went missing. On a complaint by Parasmal, the Saki Naka police arrested Salvi from his Kharghar residence in October. The police said if they get Salvi's custody, it will help them gather clues about Mukesh's whereabouts.

Parasmal said Vagare was not traceable and the police learnt that Salvi had paid Vagare Rs 10,000 and sent him to Kharad, asking him to stay away from Mumbai.

Sub-inspector Vinay Ghorpade said, "On all three occasions__October 10, October 16 and October 20__Salvi said that he was suffering from severe chest pain in front of the court. Due to this, he was sent to judicial custody and not police custody.''

Ghorpade said that on October 10, Salvi was admitted to Rajawadi hospital when he complained of chest pain. He submitted a medical report procured from a private hospital in Navi Mumbai which mentioned that he had a heart blockage. "Doubting the authenticity of the certificate, we consulted some doctors who refuted the claim,'' a police officer said.

Senior inspector Yashwant Vatkar said, "Doctors said the certificate was forged and there was no signature of the head of department on it.''

"The court has now ordered that Salvi's medical examination be conducted at JJ hospital and supervised by a panel of senior doctors,'' said Vatkar.

The police claimed that Salvi has cheated several people. He was arrested by the Sahar airport police in 2007 in a cheating case. In the second case, he allegedly duped the daughter of a former assistant commissioner of police to the tune of Rs 5 lakh. Shradha Sawant, the ACP's daughter, said she met Salvi and his family in 2005 through a neighbour. He frequently visited my house and asked for Rs 5 lakh to buy a flat. They promised to return it in a week's time, but always came up with excuses.'' A 52-year-old constable accused of cheating a jeweller has managed to evade police questioning by adopting the time-tested formula of
getting admitted to hospital by feigning illness.

On three occasions in the past one month when Milind Salvi was brought to the court, he claimed to be suffering from chest pain and thus escaped from being sent to the police lock-up. The police also wanted to question Salvi as the jeweller's son had gone missing ever since the jeweller began demanding his money back. The court has now ordered a medical examination of Salvi by the JJ Hospital.

Salvi, attached to the local arms unit, had promised Mukesh Choridia, owner of Parasmal Jewellers, Mohili Village, Saki Naka, that he would get gold at throwaway prices from a consignment seized by the customs department.

Mukesh's father Parasmal told TOI, "Salvi approached my son through a common friend, Uttam Vagare, in March 2007 and made this offer. My son was new in the trade and did not realise that he was getting duped.''

Over a period of one year Mukesh paid Salvi Rs 22 lakh. Parasmal said it was too late when his son learnt about the fraud in April 2008. "We approached Salvi on July 4 demanding the money. He then had told us that he would pay it back only if they can bring Vagare to him, in whose presence, the deal was struck.''

However, a day or two after the meeting, Mukesh went missing. On a complaint by Parasmal, the Saki Naka police arrested Salvi from his Kharghar residence in October. The police said if they get Salvi's custody, it will help them gather clues about Mukesh's whereabouts.

Parasmal said Vagare was not traceable and the police learnt that Salvi had paid Vagare Rs 10,000 and sent him to Kharad, asking him to stay away from Mumbai.

Sub-inspector Vinay Ghorpade said, "On all three occasions__October 10, October 16 and October 20__Salvi said that he was suffering from severe chest pain in front of the court. Due to this, he was sent to judicial custody and not police custody.''

Ghorpade said that on October 10, Salvi was admitted to Rajawadi hospital when he complained of chest pain. He submitted a medical report procured from a private hospital in Navi Mumbai which mentioned that he had a heart blockage. "Doubting the authenticity of the certificate, we consulted some doctors who refuted the claim,'' a police officer said.

Senior inspector Yashwant Vatkar said, "Doctors said the certificate was forged and there was no signature of the head of department on it.''

"The court has now ordered that Salvi's medical examination be conducted at JJ hospital and supervised by a panel of senior doctors,'' said Vatkar.

The police claimed that Salvi has cheated several people. He was arrested by the Sahar airport police in 2007 in a cheating case. In the second case, he allegedly duped the daughter of a former assistant commissioner of police to the tune of Rs 5 lakh. Shradha Sawant, the ACP's daughter, said she met Salvi and his family in 2005 through a neighbour. He frequently visited my house and asked for Rs 5 lakh to buy a flat. They promised to return it in a week's time, but always came up with excuses.''

Source:TOI

In the first final order in the IPO scam, capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has directed key operators Himani Patel and Dhaval Mehta to cough up more than Rs 1 crore together. The regulator has also restrained both entities from dealing in the securities market for a further period.


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Patel has been directed to disgorge the unlawful gain of Rs 33,52,636 with interest at 10 per cent from October 19, 2005 (the date of listing of shares of the Suzlon IPO) till the date of actual disgorgement, within 45 days of passing the order.

Further, the regulator has also restrained her from buying, selling or dealing in the securities market in any manner for a period of three years. If the amount is not disgorged within the specified time, Patel will be restrained from dealing in the securities markets, directly or indirectly, for an additional period of four years.

Similarly, Dhaval Mehta has been directed to disgorge the unlawful gain of Rs 72 lakh with interest at 10 per cent since August 12, 2005 (date of listing of shares of the IDFC IPO) till the date of actual disgorgement, within 45 days of passing the order. Sebi has also restrained Mehta from dealing in the securities market for a further period of two years. If the amount is not disgorged within the specified time, Mehta shall be barred from the market for an additional period of five years.

Source:Business Standard

The "cash for ticket scam" allegation leveled by senior Congress leader from Karnataka and AICC general secretary Margaret Alva is slowly gathering storm in the state unit of the party.
Alva received support from unexpected quarters on Saturday with former deputy chief minister Siddaramaiah almost endorsing her allegation, saying: "This is a serious charge and the party should look into it seriously."

Siddu has been sulking after the high command rejected his candidature for the KPCC chief's post.

Alva's allegation has hit the Congress hard coming as it does after the party failed to win even one of the three Council seats which went to byelections. The Janata Dal(S) had kept off the fray to buttress the Congress's chances.Though Siddu himself was the party campaign committee chief in the earlier assembly elections, his supporters are now speaking openly about how he was never allowed to have his way in ticket distribution. He was even forced to take up with the party chief the issue of denial of tickets to his followers.

Sources on Saturday also said that his experience with the party's central leaders was not all too happy.party working president D K Shivkumar cautiously said: "This is a sensitive issue involving the AICC. The disciplinary action committee is seized of the same, we will wait for the findings."

Another senior leader and KPCC office-bearer said the issue has to be settled swiftly to reduce further damage to the party.Several partymen are disturbed by the development as it would severely affect the image of the party with assembly by-elections and parliamentary elections round the corner.

"We hope Sonia Gandhi on her return from Bhutan would settle the issue for good," they said. The Congressmen are also a worried lot as the issue can provide the BJP a stick to beat the party with. The new KPCC team has its task cut out as it has a stain to erase even before thinking of convincing voters into plumping for it. The "cash for ticket scam" allegation leveled by senior Congress leader from Karnataka and AICC general secretary Margaret Alva is slowly gathering storm in the state unit of the party.

Alva received support from unexpected quarters on Saturday with former deputy chief minister Siddaramaiah almost endorsing her allegation, saying: "This is a serious charge and the party should look into it seriously."

Siddu has been sulking after the high command rejected his candidature for the KPCC chief's post.

Alva's allegation has hit the Congress hard coming as it does after the party failed to win even one of the three Council seats which went to byelections. The Janata Dal(S) had kept off the fray to buttress the Congress's chances.Though Siddu himself was the party campaign committee chief in the earlier assembly elections, his supporters are now speaking openly about how he was never allowed to have his way in ticket distribution. He was even forced to take up with the party chief the issue of denial of tickets to his followers.

Sources on Saturday also said that his experience with the party's central leaders was not all too happy. party working president D K Shivkumar cautiously said: "This is a sensitive issue involving the AICC. The disciplinary action committee is seized of the same, we will wait for the findings."

Another senior leader and KPCC office-bearer said the issue has to be settled swiftly to reduce further damage to the party.Several partymen are disturbed by the development as it would severely affect the image of the party with assembly by-elections and parliamentary elections round the corner.

"We hope Sonia Gandhi on her return from Bhutan would settle the issue for good," they said. The Congressmen are also a worried lot as the issue can provide the BJP a stick to beat the party with. The new KPCC team has its task cut out as it has a stain to erase even before thinking of convincing voters into plumping for it.

Source:DNA

A Thane resident, desperate to own a house in Mumbai, recently forged documents to avail of a home loan of Rs 50 lakh from a leading
private sector bank. Fortunately, the bank's verification department smelt a rat and trapped the fraudster before he could collect the cheque.

Niranjan Pujari, who claimed to be a sharebroker, could not forget his dream of owning a house in the metropolis despite suffering losses in the stock market. So, he connived with two friends, Dilip Patil and Milind More, to create a set of forged documents which could be submitted to the bank for the loan.

They have been booked under Sections 34 (common intention), 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) and 511 (punishment for attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or other imprisonment) of the IPC. The trio are out on bail after having paid the surety amount.

The police said Pujari submitted the loan application to the Ghatkopar branch of ICICI Bank in September 2008. Kiran Karnik, the complainant working with the vigilance department of the bank, said he doubted the genuineness of the documents from the beginning. In order to get to the truth, the bank called up Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) to verify his employment details. "Company officials responded saying Reliance did not have a employee by the name of Pujari on its rolls''.

The bank officials then laid a trap to nab Pujari and his accomplices.
Accordingly, the bank asked Pujari to visit the bank branch and collect the cheque of Rs 50 lakh against the housing loan he had applied for.ICICI bank officials then handed over Pujari to the police, when the latter came to the branch to accept his cheque.

"During investigations, it was found that Pujari had managed to forge the salary payslip of Reliance. He had also copied the company's identity card,'' said police officials. Besides, he forged the pan card of his elder brother by superimposing his photograph on it, he added.

Police sources said Patil helped Pujari in forging the documents required for the housing loan. "More, who worked as an executive with ICICI Bank, forwarded Pujari's loan application despite being aware that the documents were all forged,'' an official said.

Source:TOI

A member of a gang involved in credit card fraud has been arrested by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai crime branch on Saturday. The arrested person has been identified as Anwar Manohar Shaikh, a resident of Ghansoli.

According to the police, three members of the gang were earlier arrested by the Chembur unit of the crime branch after they raided a shop at Ghatkopar in April, last year. The arrested were Farooq Allahbaksh Soothe, Rajendra Vishnu Babar and Ashfaq Soothe.

According to the police, the gang members used to make bogus documents required to procure credit and debit cards.

The case was later handed over to EOW for further investigations. “Shaikh is suspected to have issued 20 credit cards, using bogus documents, cheating several banks of funds amounting to Rs29lakh,” said a crime branch official, requesting anonymity. Shaikh was produced before a holiday court on Sunday, which remanded him to custody till November 17.A member of a gang involved in credit card fraud has been arrested by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai crime branch on Saturday. The arrested person has been identified as Anwar Manohar Shaikh, a resident of Ghansoli.

According to the police, three members of the gang were earlier arrested by the Chembur unit of the crime branch after they raided a shop at Ghatkopar in April, last year. The arrested were Farooq Allahbaksh Soothe, Rajendra Vishnu Babar and Ashfaq Soothe.

According to the police, the gang members used to make bogus documents required to procure credit and debit cards.

The case was later handed over to EOW for further investigations. “Shaikh is suspected to have issued 20 credit cards, using bogus documents, cheating several banks of funds amounting to Rs29lakh,” said a crime branch official, requesting anonymity. Shaikh was produced before a holiday court on Sunday, which remanded him to custody till November 17.


Source:DNA

The family that owns South Indian fast food chain Saravana Bhavan is in trouble, again.First it was the father who went to jail for murder. Now, his son has been charged with cheating and fraud.R Shivakumar, son of the owner of Hotel Saravana Bhavan, one of the most popular south Indian restaurant chains, has been sent to 15 days judicial custody for allegedly attempting to obtain US visas for his employees using forged documents.

“We have applied for bail and the application comes to court on November 11. He has been remanded to 15 days of judicial custody,” Shivakumar’s defence counsel Muthukannayan said

Sivakumar was arrested on Saturday night following a complaint from the US Consulate.
He has been booked under five sections of the Indian Penal Code including Section 420 which deals with cheating and fraud.After initial interrogation, Shivakumar was presented in court on Sunday evening.The founder of Hotel Saravana Bhavan, Rajagopal, was charged with murder and has been out on bail for more than two years now. Now his son is going to spend the next 14 days in judicial custody.

But the counsel for Hotel Saravana Bhavan is hoping that they can bail out Sivakumar just like they succeeded in bailing out his father years ago.

Source:IBN

The Oshiwara police have arrested an employee of a Delhi-based firm, which offered a money-doubling scheme to investors and conned them
of their deposits. At least 150-200 people, who were duped in this manner, had complained to the police against the management of the company, Kanakdhara.

The police are now looking for the firm's promoters, Bhupendrasingh Bakshi and Gurukaransingh Bakshi, who are believed to be masterminds of the racket. Both of them are residents of Delhi.

The arrested employee has been identified as Manojkumar Oza. Officials said Oza introduced himself to people as the info centre chief of the company's Maharashtra branch. He held a seminar at Brijwasi Hall in Goregaon (E) where he announced details of the scheme to investors.

The initial deposit to be made by every investor was Rs 13,920. The investors would receive Rs 640 at the end of the first month, Rs 1,280 in the second month and Rs 2,560 in the third month. In this manner, the investor would earn a whopping Rs 26.2 lakh at the end of the year, Oza claimed.

Oza also announced that Kanakdhara's local office was located in Patliputra Nagar on Link Road, Jogeshwari (W), while the head office was in Delhi and there were several branches spread across the country. All those investors who would bring new members for the scheme would be rewarded with an annual commission of Rs 3.68 lakh, Oza claimed.

Several Mumbaikars fell for the seemingly-lucrative scheme and paid Rs 13,920 by cheque to Oza. But afterwards, whenever they made enquiries with him, Oza failed to give them their due returns. Realising that they had been conned, the investors approached the Oshiwara police.

"Based on the complaint filed by a 55-year-old investor, Varsha Seth, we raided the Kanakdhara office and picked up Oza. He has been booked under Sections 420 and 406 of the IPC for cheating,'' detection officer R Padavi said.


Source: TOI

Under fire for fathering a Rs 60,000-crore scam, communications & IT minister A Raja hit back on Friday with all the ammunitions in his store. At a hastily convened press conference, Raja said that spectrum and licences were allocated to new players according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) recommendations and that he was willing to resign if proved otherwise. He said all his decisions conformed to the national Telecom policy, 1999, Cabinet and Parliament approval.

In his offensive best, Raja blamed the “undeclared cartel”—an apparent reference to the existing telecom operators who were there before he took the ministry reins last year—for the controversy. The minister said he was being opposed because he sought to “transcend the telecom revolution to a new era” by promoting more competition so that tariffs come down further and tele-density spreads.

The controversy surrounding Raja is that he accorded licences and spectrum at cheap rates to a host of new applicants, of which two new licence-holders, Unitech and Swan, made a fortune by selling a part of their stakes. The two companies, which received spectrum for a measly amount of up to Rs 1,651 crore, recently sold some of their stakes at a valuation of around $2 billion without having any skeletal structure in place, subscribers or knowledge of the telecom business. In fact, Sanjay Chandra, head of Unitech Wireless, had even said that the company had no plans of investing any money in towers, which constitute the nuts and bolts of the telecom business. Raja’s critics maintain that the pan-India licence charge of Rs 1,651 crore was a price discovered way back in 2001, and that 2G spectrum should ideally have been auctioned to realize the current market-determined price.

Raja said that the 2G spectrum was not auctioned because Trai did not favour it and that there was nothing wrong in diluting equity by issuing fresh shares as opposed to sale of promoter’s equity. He said finance minister P Chidambaram had given him a clean chit on this count.

Source: The Indian Express

In the backdrop of the row over spectrum allocation to mobile companies, Samajwadi Party alleged that a scam worth Rs 18,000 crore was involved in it.

SP general secretary Amar Singh said that ‘many national and multinational telecom companies are using more than their share of spectrum allocated to them by TRAI and are violating its norms and a scam of Rs 18,000 crore is going on’.

Singh who was talking to reporters after meeting the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi said, "national and multinational telecom companies like Vodafone, Airtel and Idea are violating TRAI norms."

The SP leader has been raising the issue of ‘misuse’ of spectrum allocation since quite sometime and he had also written to the PM on it earlier in 2008. The issue was also discussed during the first meeting of the Congress-SP coordination committee held in August, 2008.

Telecommunication Minister A Raja had offered to resign if his decision to allocate 2G spectrum to mobile companies on first come first served basis was proved wrong.

The SP leader who met the PM to discuss economic issues, said that he also discussed the issue of fuel price hike with the PM, who gave him a patient hearing.

"If Petroleum Minister Murli Deora does not roll back petrol price hike, then he may have to face the music from the common man," .

Source: Indian Express

The civic administration has sought permission from the standing committee to allow the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) to book six officials
of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) involved in the Kothrud transfer of development rights (TDR) scam that rocked the PMC two years ago.

According to a proposal tabled by the civic administration, the ACB has recently submitted a report which states that assistant engineer Deepak Bhalchandra Kulkarni, junior engineers Dattatray Bhanudas Tambare, Madhusudan Shrirang Yenkar and Chandrasen Tulshiram Nagtilak, legal advisor Ravindra Nivrutti Thorat and maintenance surveyor Sitaram Chintu Kadhu have been found to have criminal intentions in the scam.

The PMC has already suspended Kulkarni, Tambare, Yenkar and Thorat for thier alleged involvement in the scam.
Quoting the ACB report, the proposal said that the engineers have worked with malafide intentions with the objective of earning illegal monetary gains. “They have tried to destroy original records and replace them with fake records to show that they are real,” the report states.

Following the findings, the PMC has sought permission of the standing committee to book the six accused.
The issue had rocked the city in October 2005 when the PMC had been allegedly duped to the tune of Rs 14 crore by two property owners and their agent, who procured TDR for a plot of land in Kothrud, which had already been acquired and paid for by the PMC.
The PMC had acquired the plot, owned by the accused, to develop a civic amenity in 1979. It had paid a monetary compensation of Rs 21,85,826 to the accused. The accused then submitted fake documents, claiming that they had not received compensation and made an application to the PMC, claiming a TDR of 36,000 sq.m.

Civic officials, who granted the TDR, later realised that they were cheated and lodged a police complaint. However, the local corporators had pointed out that it was the duty of the civic officials to verify the documents before granting the TDR and that there was a possibility that officials were involved too.

An independent inquiry, conducted by then additional commissioner Mohan Adtani, found four of the above-mentioned officers guilty. They were suspended.

Source:TOI

Six years after The Indian Express carried a series of reports bringing to the fore a scam of irregularities in the allotment of retail petrol pumps and LPG distributorships by the previous NDA Government, the Supreme Court on Friday brought long-awaited relief to 112 such cases, judging that their “selection was based on merit”.

However, the apex court upheld the cancellation of 93 petrol pumps in different parts of the country.

Tracing the history of the scam, the Bench of Justices C K Thakker and R V Raveendran recalled how questions were raised in Parliament after this newspaper carried reports in August 2002, alleging that the BJP-ruled Government allotted petrol pumps and LPG distributorship to relatives and associates of political functionaries.

The then prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was forced to order the Petroleum Ministry to take steps to cancel all allotments made on the basis of recommendations of Dealer Selection Boards from January 2000 till that date. This resulted in the cancellation of 3,760 allotments, but several allottees challenged this decision in different high courts.

Source: The Indian Express

We just know one kind of terrorist who hurts our country, there is one more kind of terrorist, like Shameema Banu, who hurt our country that taxpayers don’t know. Shameema Banu, a Indian citizen, comes to Cook County Hospital with a tourist visa, gets a major heart surgery, costing the tax payers thousands of dollars, fills her suit case filled with medicine from the Cook County Hospital pharmacy, that can last for one year and leaves. She did not even have the decency to say thank you to the tax payers and Cook County Hospital. The tax payers would not have known this, as she told me she cooked up all the papers, and had contacts to erase her name from the record before she left. She did it again, but this time, she came to USA sponsored, by her brother Dr. Mohamed Rehman, who is presently living , at 713 corner stone lane, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010, Phone No. 610 527 9198, whose household income per year is $350,000 to $400,000. Her brother after she came to this country dumped her on the tax payers to support her medical bills. This time, she told me that Cook County Hospital is for poor people so she got her heart surgery done in University of Chicago Hospital after giving all the medical records that she had from Cook County hospital. Again the tax payers paid the bill.The Edward hospital of Naperville, charged the tax payers for services in and out of hospitals several times. I was surprised, to see a care taker in her house, doing household chores, like cleaning her kitchen, she joked with me telling me, only rich people like her
can a have care taker. But later I found that the taxpayers were paying for the caretaker. When I told her,
this is not fair on her part, as the country is going through bad financial times, her answer, “the country will have a bad time for a long time, let me enjoy”. She tells me it is ignorant people like me who live in a one bed room apartment, which Shameema Banu calls a chicken house, don’t know how to get freebies and tax payers pay for the freebies.

By the time people like Shameema Banu are brought to justice to stop this type of terrorism, our children
will be paying their bills.

When Shameema Banu learned from her doctor in Bangalore, India, that she needed major heart surgery, it that will cost her a lot money, she told me she laughed and left the place. Next thing, she called her brother Dr. Mohamed Rehman, who was a resident at Cook County Hospital, to fix the papers, so that she can get
into Cook County Hospital, get the surgery done and disappear. She bought a first class ticket, according to her, came here as a tourist, got the surgery done, stayed in Cook County Hospital for 2 weeks. She knew
I was a poor person, she would call me, to stay with her at night, even though she knew I work 12 hours a
day, seven days a week. After she checked out of the hospital, she gave me papers, and told me that I
should go to Cook County Hospital at night and get the medicine. This was so hard on me, by the time I
went back home, it would be 1 am. When I could not take this I told her, why doesn’t she get medicine from another pharmacy in the day time, her answer was the quality in Cook County Hospital is good. When I asked who is paying the bills, she told me she has paid the bills from India. But then when I was standing in line at Cook County pharmacy, I got very angry and told the clerk, my sister has paid the money and I should not
be standing in line for such a long time. He told me that is not true and asked me about my sister and told
him every thing. I came and told this to my sister, she got nervous, and she left the next day. By this time
she had a suit case full of medicine from Cook County Hospital. At the airport when I told her what she has done is fraud and she will go to jail, she told me she knows how to take bribes and how to give bribes and
that she has bribed Cook County people to cook all kind of papers and no one will even know she was in Cook County.

Like to know about Shameema Banu:- A civil engineer from Bangalore India, she told me nothing moves
from her table till the contractors grease her palms to her satisfaction. Her office timing, according to her, starts at 11 am, the coffee time at 11 30 am, lunch at 1 pm, then 4 pm done for the day. According to her , bribe she takes she calls it consultancy fee, and she has bought real estate worth tens of thousands of
dollars. Her richness can be imagined, when her daughter living in Naperville asked her, to send the furniture that she grew with, which is not worth $10 in garage sale, she shipped the furniture from Bangalore to Naperville. The only gifts she gives to her little grand children is 24 carat gold jewels, the children are so young, I doubt if they even know what is gold. To hide herself from tax payers of this country, she lives in a posh condo in Naperville, and tells her son is paying the rent. She gives money to her son and then he
pays all her bills, so that the tax payers should not come to know it is her money. She take no less than six to eight suit cases every time she travels overseas, and spends lavishly. I am told her new house in India which she built is worth millions of dollars.

Shameema Banu now lives at 353 S. Whispering Hills, Apt A, Naperville IL 60540-5089, Phone number 630- 470-9666, enjoying her life and laughing on hard working people like you and me who are paying for hospital bills and her caretaker.


Thanking you,

Habib Wala
6909 N. Ridge, Apartment 1 D
Chicago IL 60645
Phone 312 523 5391

Source: countrywideprostitutes.blogspot.com

There's no doubt that cyber security needs tightening up in India, with terrorists increasingly using technology to plan their activities. Moreover, online fraud cases are on the rise.
In a panel discussion - The Need for National Cyber Security Advisory Board - organised by Bangalore IT. Biz, speakers from different concerned quarters tried to throw some light on measures which can be used to curb these cyber activities.

Apparently, over 80 Indian banks do not have adequate security protection to their online account users. In such circumstances, fraudsters can easily get the access to the personal information of account holders.

These problems are due to the complexity of cybercrimes, and also non-cooperation from netizens, according to the panelists speaking on the topic of "ICT and National Security - with special focus on Cyber Security" on the first day of India's premier ICT event, BangaloreIT.biz. Panelists feel that there is a need to set up a National Cyber Security Advisory Board to tackle constantly increasing cyber crime.

Cyber Law College director Naavi Vijayashankar said, "Without the cooperation of netizens, a cybercrime-free surfing experience cannot be achieved; totally bug-free software will never be a reality as IT softwares always evolve. A supportive law, security practices at user and intermediary level and hi-tech policing can contain cybercrimes to some extent."

The country's first cyber police station of Karnataka often cannot nab the fraudsters even after tracing them. The superintendent of police for cybercrimes, B A Mahesh, said, "There are so many issues that come in the way to nab a culprit even after identifying. A novice named M Joseph duped several accountholders and swindled money from their accounts. I wonder how to contain IT pros and experts who make use of several hacking and privacy invading softwares that are available in the market."

Mahesh added, "Karnataka is the first state to have a full-fledged cyber police station, whose jurisdiction is entire state, and succeeded in taking action against those using cyber cafes to carry out unlawful activities. Cases of phishing reported to Karnataka police are on rise from only six in 2006 to seven in 2007 and 24 in 2008. Lack of cooperation and inability to understand the urgency to respond quickly are the problems from user's ending that are making cyber police helpless."

The Indian computer emergency response team director, Gulshan Rai, said, "Monitoring cyberspace has been becoming more and more complex as there are new technologies and usage patterns emerge every day. More smart devices, application simplicity and flexible infrastructures are some of the hurdles that come in the way to stop cyber crimes. More complex and target-oriented softwares are available for cyber criminals to carry on operations across the globe."

Gulshan Rai suggested all netizens should visit either UN site www.intgovforum.org or Indian site www.cert-in.org.in to freely download patches or malicious program elimination software free of cost. "Being a government organisation working closely with IT majors for safe surfing experience to netizens, this site provides up-to-date data and ways of securing your computers.

Source: itexaminer

After much delay, the Anti-Corruption wing of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday registered nine cases in connection with the multi-crore foodgrain scam.

The scam was related to the misuse of the foodgrain meant for the Below Poverty Line families during the Samajwadi Party rule between March 2004 and October 2005.

According to CBI sources, eight cases were lodged related to Ballia district involving eight chief development officers and four other PCS rank officers. The other case related to Lakhimpur Kheri in which 10 PCS rank officers and 90 others have been named.

The Ballia scam amounted to Rs 14 crore and Kheri to Rs 1.25 crore.

Source:The Indian Express

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has so far collected over Rs 3.5 crore through consent orders passed in the initial public offer (IPO) share allotment scam of 2006.

Sebi wholetime members T C Nair and M S Sahoo passed the 26th such consent order on October 31, asking Bansilal Mehta and Chimanlal Shah to remit Rs 4.26 lakh. Mehta and Shah “were alleged financiers to key operators for cornering shares in the IPO of IDFC”, the order said. The regulator had earlier prohibited them from buying, selling and dealing in securities. So far, the regulator has settled 128 cases through consent orders.

A consent order is a system of settling disputes in capital markets through an agreement between a regulator and an accused through a penalty or a fine. Earlier this month, Sebi had asked one of the alleged financiers and key operators in the IPO scam, Kelan Atulbhai Doshi, to pay the disgorgement amount of Rs 2.5 crore in addition to Rs 5 lakh as settlement charges.

This was also the highest penalty that Sebi has ever asked anyone to pay up among the IPO scam consent orders. Sebi had signed the first set of consent orders in June with members of the Dadia family, who were identified as errant financiers in the IPO scam.

The amount collected gets deposited into the Consolidated Fund of India and does not get ploughed back to the capital market. Entities that request for a consent order have to furnish a written waiver, assuring not to take any legal proceedings against Sebi concerning any of the issues covered by the consent order. The recent past has been witness to a few instances where the Sebi order has been turned down by the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT).

The IPO share allotment scam goes back to 2006, when Sebi had barred various individuals and entities from dealing in the securities market directly or indirectly until further directions. A Sebi-mandated committee headed by Justice Wadhwa, appointed to work out the modalities of compensating investors who were cheated in the IPO scam, had suggested that they be compensated by monetary terms. It had worked out a compensation of Rs 92 crore for the investors, who had applied for shares in the retail category in many IPOs, which were allegedly manipulated by the scamsters.

The money was to be collected partly by selling the frozen shares of the entities implicated in the scam, an amount estimated to be between Rs 60 crore and Rs 90 crore. The implicated individuals and entities are Roopalben Panchal, Karvy Stock Broking, Magnum Equity Services, Deep Stockbroking, Anagram Securities, Jhaveri Securities and Indiabulls Securities, among others.

Further, entities like HDFC Bank, IDBI Bank, Centurion Bank of Punjab, Motilal Oswal Securities and Jhaveri Securities were barred from opening fresh demat accounts for failing to adhere to Know-Your-Client (KYC) norms.

Source: Business Standard

The state education department had in 2003 ordered all district education officers (DEOs) to conduct verification drives on degrees
taken from states other than Gujarat. The DEOs completed the verification and gave their report to concerbed departments, but five years down the line, these reports are yet to be compiled and submitted to the government.

The result: No punitive action on the guilty and the trade of fake degrees continues to thrive.

Recently, one such scam came to light when on October 25 a case of forgery was "almost reported" to the Vastrapur police. In this case, an agent lured a student into getting admission in Gujarat colleges on the basis of fake marksheet.

Police complaint was not filed in this case as the accused paid back the money to the student he had cheated. According to Vastrapur police station officials, an admission counsellor having office at Moonlight Complex, near Gurukul, was an expert in giving class X and XII certificates to students aspiring to get admission in science stream courses. He also helped in some cases with college degrees.

Here the aspirant paid Rs 70,000 for a fake degree. The admission counsellor was thrashed. He then repaid the money to the student and saved himself from being jailed.

The incident has once again raised questions on the mechanism of checking degrees and genuine qualifications of teachers in the state.

In 2003, after 213 teachers were found with fake degrees, the department identified various universities listed as having dubious credentials. The DEOs were asked to make a trip to specific states and universities with a list of doubtful cases and degrees and conduct a verification process.DEO of Vadodara, RK Patel, said, "In 2003 I had visited a few universities in Uttar Pradesh. It was a three-day visit and we had taken the degree certificates for their verification. All the DEOs had submitted their report soon after but I am not aware if any further action has been taken after that."

Also, degree certificates that appeared fake and were from univerisities within the state were also checked.

SCAMS FROM THE PAST

* In 2003, the fake degree scam was unearthed when BEd degrees of 17 teachers appointed in PanchmahalS were scrutinised by district education officer (DEO) of Godhra, VJ Shah. Since the DEO had a doubt he sent an official to verify the authenticity of these degrees and all turned out to be fake.

* The education department then sent letters to all DEOs to scrutinize all BEd degrees from Bundelkhand University. From the applications that the education department had received that year, 3,500 were from states other than Gujarat which included 213 from Bundelkhand University alone.

* Investigations revealed that degrees of Bundelkhand University in Jhansi were procured at a price ranging between Rs 1.5 and Rs 2 lakh.

* In April 2004, close to 1,700 teachers with degrees from other states were appointed by the education department in grant-in-aid schools. Twenty-one of these teachers were found with bogus degrees who were relieved from duty with immediate effect.

* In April 2008, the state education department recovered almost Rs 2.6 crore from 213 teachers, found to have fake degrees. The recovery was of salaries that these teachers had been paid. These teachers had put in service of one to seven years.

Source:TOI

A Newsmax investigation of Obama/Biden campaign contributors, undertaken in conjunction with a private investigative firm headed by a former CIA operations officer, has identified 118 donors who appear to lack U.S. citizenship.

Some of these “red flag” donors work for foreign governments; others have made public statements declaring that they are citizens of Cameroun, Nigeria, Pakistan, Canada, and other countries.

A Newsmax sampling of about 3,400 donors also found hundreds more who showed “yellow flags” such as not having used a Social Security number or a known U.S. address. Most U.S.-born citizens are issued Social Security numbers at birth or by the time they enter kindergarten.

Under federal law, only U.S. citizens or permanent residents may donate to federal political campaigns. It is illegal for the campaigns to accept money knowingly from foreign donors.

The McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill of 2002 placed new restrictions on political fundraising after the scandals of 1996, when the Clinton-Gore re-election campaign was exposed for having taken millions of dollars of unregulated soft money from donors with ties to Chinese military intelligence.

But even with the new laws, it remains very difficult to identify with any precision foreign money if a campaign itself does not cooperate with the Federal Election Commission and perform its own due diligence.

Until very recently, the Obama campaign had no safeguards in its online fundraising Web site designed to weed out foreign donors. Instead, its operations appeared to be designed specifically to enhance the flow of illegal money.

The Newsmax investigation focused only on donors whose names the Obama campaign disclosed, which are available to public scrutiny through the Federal Election Commission Web site.

In addition to the donations the campaign has disclosed, however, it has taken an unprecedented $218 million from donors whose names it is keeping secret, according to FEC spokesman Robert Biersack.

That money came from individuals who in theory never passed the threshold of $200, the limit the FEC set for public disclosure of a donor’s name and place of residence, so there is no way of knowing how much foreign money could be included in that amount.

For example, hidden away amidst the unprecedented $150 million Obama claims to have raised from individual donors in September was more than $42 million raised from secret donors. These donations appear in the records as a single entry under the heading, “Donors, Unitemized.”

Newsmax retained the services of former CIA operations officer Frederick W. Rustmann Jr. and a team of international forensic accounting experts to comb through Obama’s donor list to identify those who apparently aren’t U.S. citizens or residents. Rustmann, a 24 year veteran field officer, operates CTC International Group Ltd., a West Palm Beach, Fla., firm that provides business intelligence services and analysis.

Using sophisticated Internet search tools, fee-based data bases, and other public records, CTC attempted to identify Social Security numbers and U.S. addresses connected to the Obama donors. Most of these donors gave obvious overseas addresses when they made their donations, but the Obama campaign had no security screen to detect them.

“Hillary and McCain demanded proof of citizenship of all their donors,” Rustmann said. “Obama did not, so he benefitted by receiving an enormous amount of money from foreign donors who wanted to influence the U.S. election process.”

Rustmann and his investigative team expressed “high suspicions” that 118 donors flagged as “red” were not U.S. citizens.

“That’s all we can say for certain, because it’s difficult to prove citizenship with no database that lists citizens,” Rustmann said.

Typical is Victor A. of Lagos, Nigeria, who gave $500 to the campaign in May. In the FEC database, his address is listed as Ikoyi, NA. But a closer look at the actual itemized receipts filed by the campaign shows that he declared his address as 9e Awori Street Dolphin Estate, Lagos, Nigeria.

That apparently slipped by the eagle eyes of the Obama campaign’s finance team.

A survey of the Obama donor base returns 8,794 donations from individuals who gave their state as “NA.” They included donors from Bangalore, India; London; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Lagos, Nigeria; and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Thousands more gave state abbreviations that, combined with the city addresses they listed, clearly referred to foreign countries. Examples include IT (Italy), FR (France), GR (Greece), NZ (New Zealand), JP (Japan), GA (Gaza).

Another 2,372 donors gave their state of residence as “ZZ,” with cities including Moscow, Barcelona, Beirut, London, Lausanne, Singapore, Hagatna, Gunma-Ken, Buelach, Shanghai, Geneva, Prague, Aichi-Gun, Kiev, Hong Kong, and others.

The Obama campaign claims that these donors with overseas addresses are Americans living abroad, but there is no way of knowing that for certain because the campaign has not systematically required proof of citizenship from overseas donors.

The pace of foreign donations and other questionable fundraising practices has increased during the past few weeks, even as Obama campaign spokesmen say they have closed loopholes on their Web site and changed the credit-card authorization procedures that have allowed such donations. The Federal Election Commission had flagged 16,639 potential foreign donations as of Oct. 21 that brought in $5,249,263.96 to the campaign.

Take the case of Jo Jacquet, who gave $23,065 to Obama in 23 separate contributions last month. CTC found three people with variations of the name “Jo Anna Jacquet” who had U.S. addresses and Social Security numbers. It is not clear whether this specific Obama donor is a U.S. citizen.

“Jo Jacquet” made all of her contributions on two days, alternating between $5 and $2,300 charges to a credit card.

On all of the donations, she gave her employer as “DFDFGDFG,” and her profession as “DFGDFGDFGHFGH.” None of this attracted the suspicions of the Obama campaign or of Chase Paymentech, the company that processes the Obama campaign’s credit card donations.

The FEC requested that the Obama campaign re-attribute or re-designate all of the money from “Jo Jacquet” that went beyond the $4,600 limit but did not require that it be refunded. Under campaign finance rules, the campaign can shift this money into the “Obama Victory” account, a joint fundraising committee with much higher individual limits that it operates with the Democratic National Committee.

One apparent reason for the unusual number of foreign donors who may not hold U.S. citizenship is the fact the Obama campaign turned off the security features most merchants demand for customers when doing online transactions, such as verifying the card number against the cardholder’s name and billing address.

Another major loophole is the apparent widespread use of gift cards, which notoriously have been used for money-laundering purposes, especially in places such as Russia and Ukraine, industry security analysts tell Newsmax.

Newsmax asked James Wester, a spokesman for Chase Paymentech, who was responsible for taking the unusual step of deactivating the Address Verification Service recommended by VISA USA on the Obama Web site. Such security features can be deactivated by the processing company, or at the request of the merchant, in this case, Obama for America.

Wester said that Paymentech was “not going to be issuing a statement at this time.”

VISA USA has a series of verification tools it recommends to online merchants to prevent online credit card fraud and to guarantee the security of personal credit-card information.

“Fraudsters have been known to test credit card numbers by making online donations to charitable organizations,” a credit-card industry insider told Newsmax, on condition of anonymity.

In fact, by operating as a “high-risk merchant,” the Obama campaign could put both its donors and Chase Paymentech at risk, he said.

“A legitimate online merchant or charity would call in the Secret Service or the FBI” if it saw the high fraud rates that have appeared on the Obama campaign Web site.

“If they are not taking basic security safeguards to prevent such obvious online fraud as you have found, then how can any donor have confidence that they will protect credit card information? But if cash flow is the name of the game, it doesn’t matter as long as they get the money up-front and get the job done. They can pay the fines later,” he added.

Following are a few of the individuals the Newsmax/CTC International investigation found of overseas donors. To demonstrate its compliance with FEC regulations, the Obama campaign should request proof that these individuals are, indeed, U.S. citizens;
# Nasser Z. of 187 Blvd Bineau in Paris-France, “NA,” made seven donations totaling $785. CTC found no record indicating U.S. citizenship. But on Nasser’s personal blog, he states that he is of Algerian origin and lives between Paris and Dubai. He also notes that he is not registered to vote in the United States and hints that he may be an adviser to the Obama campaign on Arab relations.
# Salem H. gave $200 to the campaign in March 2008, listing a London address. He said he worked as a salesman for “Anaka,” No information was found either on Haffar or his company indicating U.S. citizenship.
# Essomba H. made 11 donations totaling $265. Essomba gave an address in Lyon, “NA,” and said he was unemployed but working for “Association,” the French equivalent of a community organizer. CTC found that Essomba actually worked for PDT Associates Afrikespace et Oyenga, which showed him as living in Lyon, France. His personal blog states, "I'm a Cameroonian living in France” and notes that he is not registered to vote.
# Gedewon (or Gideon) G. made 32 donations totaling $1,095. Although he lists his employer as “Filtom Design Services” and his residence as Toronto, Canada, CTC could find no company with that name. Gedewon frequently posts blogs to a Web site for expatriate Eritreans, where he often promotes Obama.
# Mahamane M. gave $500 to the campaign and listed his address as Niamey, the capitol of the central African state of Niger. He listed his occupation as managing director of C.N.U.T. Niger. The Public Transport Users Council, CNUT is affiliated with the prime minister’s office. In an interview, Mahamane said he is particularly interested in developing transportation resources that will help bring Niger’s extensive uranium resources to market.
# Gilles M. lives in Zurich and claims to be “founder and senior consultant” of 4?ME (sic) Image Consulting. Gilles made three donations to the campaign for a total of $240.39. The campaign found him suspicious enough to return one of them in July, but kept the rest. Under FEC rules, that will bring Gilles back into the shadows, since his aggregate contributions now total less than $200.
# Stamen S. of Sofia, Bulgaria, lists his profession as “Mployer” and his employer as "Employer." He has made ten donations totaling $170. CTC found no record indicating U.S. citizenship.
# Francis B. . of La Creche, France, made three donations totaling $200. He is reported as being a medicine physician at Hospital-Niort and is listed. CTC found no verifiable record of U.S. citizenship.
# Pedro M.,. who said he was a salesman for Intermundo in Prague, made two donations for a total of $900. CTC found no verifiable record indicating U.S. citizenship.
# Sandeep M., . an investment manager at Clariden Leu, Kuesnacht, in Zurich, Switzerland, gave the maximum $2,300 allowed per election. CTC found no verifiable record indicating U.S. citizenship.
# Marissa M., . a nurse living in Guatemala City, gave eight $25 donations. CTC found no verifiable record indicating U.S. citizenship.
# Somine L. . declared that she worked at the French Ministry of Culture in Paris, and donated $100. CTC found no verifiable record indicating U.S. citizenship.

Although CTC had no way of accurately evaluating the real amount of foreign donations based on the survey they did for Newsmax, Rustmann said he believe that the anecdotal evidence was clear.

“In my opinion, from what I have seen here, millions of dollars came from illegal donations, because the Obama campaign did little to vet the donors,” Rustmann said.

An earlier Newsmax estimate, based on the unusual occurrence of unrounded contributions, which fundraising experts attributed to foreign currency donations, concluded that as much as $63 million could have come from foreign sources.

A veteran investigator with the Criminal Investigative Division of the U.S. Secret Service told Newsmax on Monday that most of the donor fraud Newsmax has identified could fly under the radar of federal investigators, unless the feds received a complaint from a victim of identify fraud.

Identify fraud certainly appeared to be the case when it came to the $174,800 donated in September in the name of Manchester, Mo., resident, Mary T. Biskup. A retired insurance manager, Biksup told The Washington Post that she never gave the money to the Obama campaign, and had checked her credit-card statements and couldn’t find any trace of a charge to her account.

“We're not out a penny," Biskup said. "I gather that someone has hacked into something using other people's credit cards and putting my name on it."

The credit-card industry often covers up identify fraud, such as apparently occurred with Biskup. Credit-card companies would rather swallow losses and chargebacks than admit to consumers that criminals have cracked their security systems, insiders tell Newsmax. (

Source: MacedoniaOnline

An inquiry conducted by a team of auditors appointed by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has unearthed a whopping Rs 15.37 crore scam in mid-day meal scheme in the state.

The team had carried out the inquiry in five districts — Ranchi, Chaibasa, Daltonganj, Gumla, Jamshedpur — between December 2007 and March 2008 and found that money was misappropriated by showing expenditure incurred in mid-day meals of those students who did not figure in records of the schools in these districts.

As per the scheme, cooked food is served free of cost to students. Both the Centre and the state Government contribute towards the expenditure incurred. The auditors found that in these five districts, false records of students were maintained.

Joint Secretary (HRD) J Toppo said a cell was being constituted to monitor implementation of the scheme.

Source: The Indian Express