SCAMSTERS INC.

Big-time economic offender and CEO of an international metal trading company, Narendra Rastogi, was on Saturday produced at a special sessions court here, following his extradition from the US on Friday. He has been remanded to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) custody till July 11.

The CBI in its observation said that the financial fraud cases involving Rastogi — including that of the customs duty evasion case involving over Rs50 crore will be investigated thoroughly. Rastogi will be probed for his role in at least 13 cases, all registered with the CBI in Mumbai and Delhi.

He was wanted by the CBI for causing loss to the Indian exchequer by way of faking documents while exporting non-ferrous metal to CIS countries. CBI sources said Rastogi, along with his brother Virendra, pretended to be in the business of ‘brokering trades in non-ferrous metals.’

Rastogi was flown back to India following termination of his sentence in America in regard to a spate of anti-trust offences involving over $ 680 million in losses caused to at least 20 banks around the globe.

A senior CBI officer said the agency was tracking affairs of the other Rastogi brothers — Virendra, Ravindra, Subash and cousin Rakesh (all co-conspirators) — since late 2000.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s New York office in a press release (dated March 6, 2008) said that Narendra Rastogi controlled an elaborate network of hundreds of bogus companies around the world to serve as fake purchasers of metals so that the defendants could secure loan from banks. While Rastogi controlled the affairs in the US his brother Virendra managed the matters in the UK.

The FBI release also detailed the scope and dimensions of the fraud confirming that hundreds of metal transactions upon which the bank loans hinged simply did not exist.
The FBI had arrested Rastogi and three others in May 2002 for back-to-back defrauding of banks. The investigations into their fake business deals were jointly carried out by the UK’s Serious Frauds Office (SFO) and the FBI.

Source:DNA

Hundreds of consumers worldwide are believed to have been conned out of money, credit card information and passport numbers by two online companies that promised to sell them tickets to the Beijing Olympics, officials say.

The International Olympic Committee and the U.S. Olympic Committee won a restraining order July 23 in federal court in Phoenix that shut down one of the websites, www.beijing-tickets2008.com. On Monday, the committees plan to ask a federal judge in San Francisco for an order that would shut down www.beijingticketing.com, which remained active Friday.

IOC and USOC attorneys have been in touch with authorities, and the FBI may get involved, said USOC General Counsel Rana Dershowitz.

The sites said they couldn't deliver tickets until late in July, so many consumers didn't realize that they had been taken until it was too late.

Jonathan Murray said he was taken for $4,950 for tickets to equestrian events in Hong Kong -- a surprise for his fiancée, a professional equestrian. The couple plan to marry next week in Switzerland and honeymoon in Hong Kong. The trip is still on, and Murray managed to replace most of the tickets.

But he's somewhat embarrassed -- he works for a software company and manages a team responsible for dealing with Internet crime. "So it was quite amusing to everyone at work that I had been scammed on the Internet," he said. "The important point I'm making by talking about this is that this was a bloody good scam."

BJP on Sunday stepped up pressure for early disclosure of details of the cash-for-vote scam by releasing what it called irrefutable technological evidence of SP general secretary Amar Singh's attempt to bribe its MPs. The party also declared that it had a copy of the CD of the sting carried out by a television channel.

BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley made public transcripts of the conversation recorded by the "sting" team of CNN-IBN as well as call details of the mobile phone of Amar Singh's personal aide Sanjeev Saxena to argue that there was enough evidence available with both the parliamentary committee probing the scam as well as the news channel to establish the veracity of BJP's bribery charge.

The transcripts — sent to the parliamentary probe panel — have sensational bits. For instance, one of the three BJP MPs, Ashok Argal, allegedly confirms to Amar Singh that Rs 1 crore offered to them as advance for staying away from the trust vote had reached them. "Ek crore prapt ho gaya. Ek poora prapt ho gaya (One crore has been received)."

On another instance, right at the outset, another BJP MP who was part of the sting says "amount ki toh baat nahin hui hogi," as he tries to draw SP emissary Reoti Raman Singh for the benefit of the CNN-IBN team which had bugged Argal's 4 Ferozeshah Road residence.

Quoting from the transcripts, Jaitley said that Saxena, who worked as Amar Singh's aide till July 22, used his mobile phone (number 9811721499) to get the BJP MPs to speak to Amar Singh on his landline (number 24616827) to confirm the receipt of advance. He said the mobile phone registered in the name of HFCL, c/o Sanjeev Saxena, was used by the SP leader's aide till as late as July 20 to inform the media of a press conference which Amar Singh later held to announce the "defection" of BJP MP Brijbhushan Sharan Singh.

Source:TOI

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on Wednesday passed its first set of ‘consent orders’ in Initial Public Offering (IPO) scam cases, concerned with 12 entities.

“In accordance with SEBI guidelines dated April 20, 2007, for consent orders, SEBI has passed its first batch of consent orders on June 5, 2008, in the matter of ‘irregularities in IPOs’ on applications submitted by Neha Narendra Dadia, Dhaval Narendra Dadia, Kiran D. Dadia, Jasmina J. Dadia, Pratik Pulp Pvt. Ltd., Sonal S. Dadia, Narendra Harilal Dadia, Dadia Finvest, Jayesh N. Dadia, Kashmira Narendra Dadia, Deepak N Dadia and Natvarlal N Dadia,” SEBI stated on Wednesday.SEBI had passed an ad interim ex-parte order on April 27, 2006, in the matter of ‘irregularities in IPOs’, wherein these applicants were alleged to be the financiers in the case.

Ex-parte order

“These applicants had applied for consent without admission or denial of guilt,” SEBI stated.

Pursuant to SEBI’s ex-parte order, these persons have already undergone prohibition from buying, selling and dealing in securities.

Settlement charges

The applicants have remitted a total sum of Rs. 71.75 lakh towards the terms of consent in the matter. The consent amount includes Rs. 59.75 lakh towards disgorgement of the amount of alleged ill-gotten gains and Rs. 12 lakh towards settlement charges.

Source:The Hindu

DEAR SIR/MADAM.

I DR FRANK EGOBIA, PRESENTLY THE DIRECTOR OF THE FINANCE IN THE NIGERIA NATIONAL PETROLEUM CORPORATION HEADQUARTERS, LAGOS NIGERIA

I AM IN NEED OF YOUR GENUINE ASSISTANT AND TRUST BECAUSE AS A TOP OFFICIAL OF THE RULING GOVERNMENT, I WANT TO SAFE-GUARD MY INTEREST IN YOUR COUNTRY BEFORE THE END OF THE TENURE OF THIS ADMINISTRATION.
MORE ALSO WE AS CIVIL SERVANT ARE FORBIDDEN TO OWN OR OPERATE FOREIGN ACCOUNT, HENCE A FOREIGNER IS NEEDED IN THIS TRANSACTION.

I PRESENTLY HAVE AN OVER INVOICED CONTRACT PAYMENT OFUSD25.5M(TWENTY FIVE MILLION, FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND UNITED STATES DOLLAR) WHICH HAS REMAIN UNCLAIMED SINCE 2000,MY SUPERIOR IN THIS RESENDENCY HAVE MANDATED ME TO PRESENT A HONEST FOREIGNER WHO CAN CONVENIENTLY PROTECT THIS FUND FOR US IN HIS COUNTRY'S BANK
ACCOUNT.

I SINCERELY BELIEVE THAT YOU CAN BE OF GREAT ASSISTANCE TO US. THIS
IS WHY I AM CONTACTING YOU AND ALSO REQUESTING FOR YOUR DISCRETION, MATURITY AND CO-OPERATION.

MY SUPERIOR HAS COMPLETED ALL ADMINISTRATIVE STEPS TO SEE THAT THIS FUND RECEIVES ALL THE REQUESTED APPROVALS IMMEDIATELY YOU GIVE ME THE GO AHEAD. ALL I NEED FROM YOU ARE THE FOLLOWING:

(1) NAME AND FULL ADDRESS OF YOUR NOMINATED BANK WITH
TELEPHONE AND FAX NUMBERS.

(2) YOUR PRIVATE TELEPHONE AND FAX NUMBERS FOR EASY
COMMUNICATION BETWEEN US.

I WILL SEND YOU DETAILS OF THE CONTRACT EXECUTED SOON AFTER I RECEIVE YOUR EMAIL REPLY FIRST. YOU WILL BE ENTITLED TO 30% OF THE TOTAL FUND IMMEDIATELY WE ARRIVE YOUR COUNTRY FOR SHARING.10% WILL COVER ALL MISCELLANEOUS EXPENSES WE MAY INCUR BOTH HERE AND IN YOUR COUNTRY.
PLEASE ENDEAVOR TO REACH ME FOR MORE DETAILS. DO NOT HESITATE TO
SEND ME AN EMAIL OR CALL AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. I SINCERELY COUNT ON YOUR ASSISTANCE, REMEMBER I AM A HIGHLY PLACED OFFICIAL AND EXPECT ABSOLUTE CONFIDENTIALITY FROM YOU IN ORDER TO PROTECT OUR PERSONAL INTEGRITY AND HONOR FROM FOREIGN JOURNALIST WHO SEEK TO DESTROY MEMBER OF OUR RULING CIVILIAN GOVERNMENT. PLEASE, YOU ARE ADVISED TO REPLY OR FORWARD ALL YOUR CORRESPONDENCE TO THIS EMAIL ADDRESS: frankegobia200@hotmail.com

I AM EXPECTING YOUR REPLY IMMEDIATELY.
BEST REGARDS,
DR. FRANK EGOBIA

The multi-crore provident fund (PF) scam unearthed from a Ghaziabad court will be heard by a special three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court on Friday. Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, who heard the matter in the earlier hearing, has now recused himself from it and placed the matter before the Bench headed by Justice B N Agarwal. The other two judges are Justices V S Sirpurkar and G S Singhvi.

The CJI is already seized of the matter on the administrative side as the Ghaziabad police chief had sought his permission before proceeding to question several High Court judges and an apex court judge, who have been named in the scam.

In the previous hearing, senior advocate Shanti Bhushan appearing for Delhi chapter of Transparency International had objected to the CJI hearing the matter on judicial side, even when he is seized of the matter on the administrative side.

The court has issued notices to the Centre and Uttar Pradesh Government on a petition by the Ghaziabad Bar Association seeking investigation into the scam.
It has been alleged that 26 members of judiciary, including an apex court judge, seven Allahabad HC judges, six retired HC judges and 12 judges from subordinate judiciary in the state, were beneficiary of crores of rupees allegedly withdrawn from the PF account of Class III and IV staff in Ghaziabad region between 2001 and 2008.

Source:Indian Express