The Indian Panorama

Tag: Preet Bharara

  • Stories in India defame the United States

    Stories in India defame the United States

    Devyani Khobragade and her pending motion to dismiss charges based upon UN letter

    How Devyani was arrested and Richard family was evacuated to United States, with prior pending legal proceedings in India affecting them, remain quite disturbing. Any immigrationfraud upon India by the Richard family’s exiting-paperwork and those who assisted them is fair area of inquiry and action.

    However, the recent stories, such as Times Now’s “US Lies Nailed,” based upon an explicitly non-binding “informal” opinion by UN Legal Office, in answer to a member state’s inquiry, defames the United States even as Judge Scheindlin, pursuant to binding precedent, must deny Devyani’s prearrest full immunity claim.

    It’s axiomatic that as one cannot be married to two people at the same time, similarly a diplomat is credentialed either as a Deputy Consul General with an A-visa or as an “Advisor” or “counselor” of PMI to the United Nations with a G-visa. If Devyani’s UN “blue” colored “advisor” card issued in August 2013 had been followed up with a then-request to the US State Department for a change in status for Devyani, from CGI to PMI and a resulting visa-change from “A” to “G” had occurred, then Devyani could not have been arrested in December 2013 as she would have enjoyed full diplomatic immunity rather than mere official acts-transactional immunity as a DCG.

    It ill serves the proud people of India to be misled by Devyani’s legal team, who are obviously lost in a legal wilderness. It ill serves us to see USA Preet Bharara defamed due to a defendant’s legal incomprehension of obvious facts and binding law. The United States’ State Department declaration about the A or G visa status of Devyani will be dispositive in dealing with the pending immunity-based dismissal motion in court, as the United States is the “receiving state” and it’s visa-category issuance is binding.

    Indeed, if Devyani had a “G” visa since August 2013, then why did she have to wait for getting it in early January 2014, allowing her to return to India and her family and FM Khurshid honorably discharge his commitment “to bring the lady back” after successful 5 multistep negotiations with the United States: we will grant a G-visa and it’s full immunity; we will then ask India to waive it; India will decline; we will then ask India to recall her; and Devyani will leave United States.

    While there may be other legitimate grounds to challenge the criminal charges filed against Devyani and seek their dismissal, the currently pending motion is akin to requesting a man to get pregnant – something even a highly learned and respected Judge Scheindlin cannot order. Whatever India does, it should do judiciously to address the Devyani issue and it’s troubling fact pattern, consistent with sovereignty, warm bilateral relations, and an understanding of actual law, not legal miscomprehensions of US law aided and abetted by a willing lawyer. It is beyond the cavil, let alone bilateral warmth, that the criminal charges ought not have been considered, let alone filed. But, now that they are, it ill serves Devyani to operate under false impression of US law and file impotent motions to dismiss.”

  • Diplomatic Retaliation: India Expels Senior US Diplomat

    Diplomatic Retaliation: India Expels Senior US Diplomat

    NEW YORK (TIP): A full scale diplomatic war seems to have erupted between India and USA over the arrest and strip-search of a senior Indian Diplomat Devyani Khobragade in New York on December 12, 2013 and her subsequent indictment for “visa fraud”. In what can be seen as a tit for tat action, India, on January 10, expelled a senior US diplomat in retaliation for the expulsion of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade hours earlier after she had been indicted by a grand jury in New York in a visa fraud case.

    Arrest of Khobragade had led to tense diplomatic stand- off between the two countries which saw the US finally approving her accreditation to the UN on Wednesday, January 8 which gave her full immunity against partial immunity she enjoyed in her position as Deputy Consul General at the time of her arrest.Khobragade was told by the US to leave the country immediately after India refused to waive her diplomatic immunity to face trial. In a quick retaliation, New Delhi ordered the expulsion of an American diplomat of similar rank who was involved in arranging for the “evacuation” of three members of the maid’s family from India two days before Khobragade was arrested.

    Refraining from using the term “expulsion”, official sources said in New Delhi that the US Embassy has been asked to “withdraw” one of its diplomats. Government of India has “reasons to believe that the diplomat is closely involved in the processes relating to the Khobragade case and subsequent unilateral action by the US”, the sources said without divulging the name of the American diplomat. The diplomat was understood to be closely involved in the “evacuation” of the family of Sangeeta, whose husband and two children were flown to the US with tickets issued by the official travel agency of the US Embassy. The diplomat is believed to have also signed the tax exemption for the air tickets using his diplomatic card. India’s tit-for-tat action is only the second instance of a US diplomat being expelled, the first instance being expulsion of George Griffin, then political Counselor, 33 years ago. That was in retaliation against similar action taken by the US against Prabhakar Menon, an Indian diplomat.

    It is understood that it was always the effort of the government to bring back Khobragade, who had surrendered her passport after the arrest and was out on a bail of USD 250,000, through G-1 visa route which would have given her full immunity. Meanwhile, the office of US Attorney Preet Bharara made it known that the charges against Khobragade will remain pending until such time as she can be brought to Court to face the charges, either through a waiver of immunity or on her return to the US in a non-immune status which would make her liable to arrest. The United States has “deeply regretted” that India felt it necessary to expel the American diplomat. “We deeply regret that the Indian government felt it was necessary to expel one of our diplomatic personnel,” the State Department spokesman Jen Psaki said. “I can confirm that a US official accredited to the (American) Mission in India will be leaving post at the request of the government of India”, Psaki said. The spokesman said “this has clearly been a challenging time in the USIndia relationship” and the US expected that “this relationship will not come to a closure and India will take “significant steps” to improve the ties and return to a more “constructive place”.

  • Devyani Khobragade gets back to India

    Devyani Khobragade gets back to India

    I.S. Saluja

    NEW YORK (TIP): Soon after she got full diplomatic immunity Wednesday, January 8, Devyani Khobragade left for New Delhi, January 9. External Affairs Ministry in New Delhi issued her transfer orders earlier in the day. Sources, on condition of anonymity, have confirmed the departure of Devyani on the evening of January 9. A US state department official said Ms Khobragade was asked to leave the United States after India had refused a request to lift her diplomatic immunity. The charges against her remain in place, the official said.

    Devyani’s departure from New York brings down curtain on just one scene. The play is likely to continue. It will be interesting to watch how the curtain finally comes down on the sordid drama that has caused anguish to a senior Indian diplomat and strained relations between two friendly countries. Devyani Khobragade was charged by a federal grand jury in Manhattan with visa fraud and making false statements in a case that has triggered an outcry in India.

    She’s accused of fraudulently obtaining a work visa for her New York City housekeeper. The indictment said Khobragade had made multiple false representations to US authorities, or caused them to be made, to obtain a visa for a personal domestic worker. She planned to bring the worker the United States in September 2012 when she worked at the Consulate General of India in New York, according to the indictment. Khobragade, 39, India’s deputy consul general in New York, has maintained her innocence to accusations that she claimed to pay her Indian maid $4,500 per month but actually gave her far less than the US minimum wage.

    Her arrest last month sparked outrage in India after revelations that she was strip-searched and thrown in a cell with other criminal defendants before being released on $250,000 bail. In a letter to the judge, prosecutors said there was no need for an arraignment because Khobragade had “very recently” been given diplomatic immunity status and left the United States on Thursday, January 9. The letter said the charges will remain pending until she can be brought to court to face them, either through a waiver of immunity or on her return to the US without immunity status.

    “We will alert the court promptly if we learn that the defendant returns to the United States in a non-immune capacity, at which time the government will proceed to prosecute this case and prove the charges in the indictment,” the letter from the office of US attorney Preet Bharara said. The timeline of the case:- ● 23 June: Maid Sangeeta Richard goes missing. Ms Khobragade informs Office of the Foreign Missions and New York police
    ● 8 July: India revokes Richard’s passport, says she’s staying in the US illegally; Khobragade accuses her of theft and attempt to blackmail
    ● 4 September: US state department asks Indian embassy to inquire into Richard’s allegations disputing her terms of employment
    ● 8 October: Indian embassy writes to state department explaining facts of the case and accusing Richard of “seeking to subvert both Indian and US laws”
    ● 19 November: A Delhi court issues warrant for arrest of Sangeeta Richard
    ● 6 December: India forwards the warrant to the US embassy in Delhi and the state department
    ● 10 December: Richard’s husband and children fly to the US
    ● 12 December: Khobragade arrested in New York, produced in court and released on a $250,000 bond
    ● 8 January: US State Department grants immunity to Khobragade. It then asked Khobragade to leave the United States on Thursday, January 9, after India had refused a request to lift her diplomatic immunity so that she could be tried.
    ● 9 January: Khobragade leaves New York for India by an evening flight of Air India.

  • Removal of a foreign citizen from a foreign sovereign: the durable injustice

    Removal of a foreign citizen from a foreign sovereign: the durable injustice

    The author who is an eminent attorney pleads for a graceful resolution, with no lasting after-taste of excessive legalities in the tangled case of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragde. “Nuremberg Laws taught us that law alone isn’t enough to be right, as history is always a better judge, and millions lost their lives to coldly calculated laws that aided efficiently engineered deaths in the Holocaust”, says he.

    The impressive Mission Impossiblelike clockwork in the removal of the Richards family, two days prior to the public arrest of DCG Devyani Khobragade, albeit, with warm coffee and courtesies extended, leaves one scratching one’s head while suffering a legal headache caused by a “Gordian” tumor – competing sovereignty and competing legal actions. If these events were not ill-advised and tragic, they could make for a great paraphrased performance of “Who’s on First” by famed comedians Bud Abbott & Lou Costello. After all, no one has cited the existence of an empowering or enabling prior-judicial determination in the United States adjudicating Sangeeta Richards as a “human trafficking victim,” and an issuance of a court judgment granting her a “T” visa – such a determination would at a bare minimum, given our cherished adversarial system of justice, have required Devyani, given her physical and VCCR-availability, to be notified and given an opportunity to be heard in such a civil or administrative court proceeding.

    To further grant, as reported, Sangeeta’s husband, Philips, and their children, Jannifar and Jatin, also a “T” visa, human trafficking victims, while they were all physically in their homeland, on foreign soil and a territory of a foreign sovereign, let alone a friendly one, seems to do un-needed violence to the rule of law and the comity of nations, and is perhaps the most durable injustice that must not be allowed to become a precedent – if meritbased legal sovereignty is to survive in our world of 194 countries. Even though most witnesses take the oath seriously and tell the truth, because sometimes witnesses will exaggerate or outright commit perjury, our Founding generation, a gender-neutral term adopted by our Chief Justice Roberts, created the Confrontation Clause, enshrined in the Sixth Amendment, to fillet open and expose falsity in court. Nobody can argue that a domestic worker in India, making market wages, given a chance to get to be “legal” in the United States may tell a tall tale to win the immigration lottery.

    While witness-intimidation or witnesskilling is one of the worst offenses to any judicial system in any country, and United States and India are no exception; law enforcement is always authorized to protect witnesses within its own territory. To do so on foreign soil, requires informed consent by the foreign sovereign. Those who leave India, via a scheduled commercial flight, are required to fill out and sign immigration and custom forms required by the Republic of India. It has been widely reported that there was then pending, weeks if not months prior to American proceedings, legal proceedings in Indian Court that enjoined Sangeeta, and an arrest warrant had been issued for her, given her alleged violation of the terms and conditions of carrying an official Indian passport, rather than a mere citizenpassport. Just as a soldier who goes AWOL is subject to being court-martialed and dishonorably discharged from the service, an Indian carrying an Official passport is subject to face charges in India.

    It would be relevant to any court, that Sangeeta, given her current tale of victim-hood, wins a T-visa and backdoors into a Green Card. Motive evidence is powerful. Surely, the persons who were removed could have material evidence relevant to prior-initiated judicial proceeding in India, in addition to Sangeeta obviously having material evidence for such Indian proceedings. In that context, and history, the extra-judicial removal of foreign citizens of a foreign sovereign, with potential fraud being perpetrated in the exiting-paperwork at the Indian airport, leaves one breathless at the audacity and scope of the acts taken to vindicate the alleged violation of our wages & hours laws and related visa-fraud, consciously and purposefully aided and abetted by Sangeeta. If one believes Devyani, than Sangeeta was happy to make much more money working in New York than in India. The immediate resolution of this selfinflicted wound is a graceful resolution, with no lasting after-taste of excessive legalities.

    Nuremberg Laws taught us that law alone isn’t enough to be right, as history is always a better judge, and millions lost their lives to coldly calculated laws that aided efficiently engineered deaths in the Holocaust. The long-term solutions are two fold: 1. create a new category of foreign diplomatic domestic workers, who must be treated at least as well as required by their own nation’s laws; and 2. every nation on earth, despite Ricardo’s comparative advantage, adopts our labor laws, including, hours & wages. Given the Arab Spring, and every person on earth wanting their version of the American Dream, including, American freedom, we should all work towards such a beautiful day. Meanwhile, the T-visa is not an appropriate way to grant amnesty to 11 million illegal aliens in the United States, especially, with criminal cases pending against them in their country of citizenship; nor is it proper, at taxpayer expense, to have our diplomats locate the family members of such illegal aliens on foreign soil and fly them all here – 11 million may well mushroom to 50 million legal T-visa holders. Methinks, the AFLCIO and even cities and states, already under fiscal budget pressures, may loudly object.

    It is one think to always invite a few Einsteins of the world here, it’s another to add millions more to the un-employed ranks. Hopefully, given the proven legal brilliance and sound prosecutorial discretion of Preet Bharara, and the deep, history-rich and lofty experience of our Secretary of State John Kerry, a distinguished lawyer and former warrior, chairman of Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a presidential candidate, and a history-making president Barack Obama, re-elected to prove history right while washing our constitutional original sin, a resolution can and will be crafted to find grace and renewed dignity for all. Luckily, India, speaking with one voice, itself exceptional and note-worthy, is represented by: a lawyer-poet-author Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid, a kind and courtly gentleman, fully at ease with the need to calibrate power and reciprocity, and whom I have gotten to know and respect, as I already do Secretary Kerry and said so; Prime Minister Singh, who has earned worldrespect, including, singular honors from President Obama, and I and my wife have witnessed the body-hug in the East Room of the White House in November 2009; President Mukherjee, a powerful and proven governmentalist and an India-patriot; and principled and capable opposition leaders, in sync with their constitution, to deliver a robust democracy to India.

    If with this cast of superb bilateral leadership at this time of needless crisis, if we remain mired in an endless well filled with conflicts of law, as if it was mud, then leadership and wisdom would have failed us all. As a superpower, it is incumbent upon us, the United States, to remain a beacon in human history and light the way to a better day. As Christmas and the new year is upon us, I am sure we will, and accordingly, wish everyone a world that is just and fair, legal and proper, and the pursuit of happiness with equal protection of the law everywhere

  • Lord, Forgive them, for they know not what they do

    Lord, Forgive them, for they know not what they do

    Ignorance of law is no excuse. And ignoring the law is also no excuse. What has now come to the fore in the case of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade is that she had full immunity at the time of her arrest on December 12. She should not have been arrested. But she was. And in blatant violation of Geneva Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations. Article 4 Section 11A specifies “immunities from personal arrest or detention and from the seizure of their personal baggage” of all representatives of members to the United Nations.

    At the time Devyani was arrested, she was an Advisor to the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations. And in that capacity she enjoyed full immunity. Section 16 of the same Article specifies that the expression “Representative” shall be deemed to include all delegates, deputy delegates, advisors, technical experts and secretaries of delegations. She was accredited as advisor on August 26 and was transferred to the permanent mission after the arrest and is currently holding the position of counselor. Will Preet Bharara who presided over the hauling up of the Indian diplomat now say he did not know the law or he will say he did not know Devyani was not only the Deputy Consul General at the Indian Consulate but also had a position with the UN? Your ignorance either way has cost the two friendly nations a lot. Yes, a lot.

    What will you say now, Mr. Bharara? Will you own up and feel sorry? But that’s not going to help. Neither will it restore the wronged lady’s honor, nor it will assuage the hurt feelings of a nation and it will also not help restore the warmth of relationship and trust between two friendly countries. Again, another lapse on the part of prosecution has come to light. The amount of $4,500 quoted by Bharara as salary promised to Sangeeta by Khobragade was actually just a mention of the employer’s salary on the help’s visa application form. Here is how the flub could have occurred. Sangeeta Richard was required to submit a form DS-160, along with her visa application and a screenshot of the actual online application here. The application seeks the applicant’s work/education/training information. It asks for the present employer’s name and then asks for month salary in local currency. Who’s month salary? The obvious answer is the visa applicant’s monthly salary. But here is where Sangeeta Richard put in her employer Devyani Khobragade’s monthly salary, which is approximately $ 4500 per month, whereas she should have put in $ 1560 per month – the negotiated $ 9.95 per hour for a 40-hour work-week which works out to $ 390 per week x 4 weeks = $1560.

    Devani’s attorney Daniel Arshack is right when he said, “It is clear that Mark Smith, the Diplomatic Security Services agent who handled the investigation and arrest of Dr Khobragade and who drew up and swore to the accuracy of the formal complaint in this case, simply made an error in reading the DS 160 form which supported the visa application for the domestic worker, Sangeeta Richard. He erroneously and disastrously believed that the $4,500/month salary entry on the form was Ms Richard’s expected salary when, in fact, it was clearly a reporting of the base salary to be earned by the employer, Dr Khobragade, in the United States”. Will Mark Smith be able to defend himself or Preet Bharara? The more vital question is: will the US administration be able to defend the incompetent prosecutors? Let us end the legal squabbles and try to get back the niceties lost because of the ignorant and erring prosecutors. I sincerely hope the saner elements on both the sides hear me.

  • Devyani Khobragade had full immunity when arrested: claim India government sources

    Devyani Khobragade had full immunity when arrested: claim India government sources

    NEW YORK (TIP): Did US attorney Preet Bharara overlook or chose deliberately to ignore the fact that Devyani Khobragade enjoyed full immunity when she was arrested on Thursday, December 12 for allegedly presenting fraudulent documents to the United States State Department in support of a visa application for an Indian national employed as a babysitter at housekeeper at Khobragade’s home in Manhattan? As it now turns out, diplomat Devyani Khobragade was accredited as an advisor to the Permanent Mission of India to the UN, allowing her full immunity from personal arrest or detention, when she was picked up from her children’s school by US authorities.

    India Government sources said Khobragade was accredited advisor to the Indian mission to the UN on August 26, 2013 to help the mission with work related to the General Assembly, and her accreditation was valid until December 31. The sources claimed the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations Article 4 Section 11A specifies “immunities from personal arrest or detention and from the seizure of their personal baggage” of all representatives of members to the United Nations. Section 16 of the same Article specifies that the expression “Representative” shall be deemed to include all delegates, deputy delegates, advisors, technical experts and secretaries of delegations. She was accredited as advisor on August 26 and was transferred to the permanent mission after the arrest and is currently holding the position of counselor.

    Because she was attached to the permanent mission only temporarily (until December 31), the State Department was not required to issue its own identity card and it is possible that they may not have known about Khobragade’s status. Sources said this was all the more reason for the State Department to have informed India about the move to arrest Khobragade. As the diplomat was working as acting consul general, the US ought to have notified India about her arrest under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. The MEA joint secretary who handles the US desk, Vikram Doraiswamy, was in that country on the day Khobragade was arrested, but he wasn’t informed about it. The alacrity with which the US “evacuated” Khobragade’s domestic help Sangeeta Richard’s family, two days before the diplomat’s arrest, rattled New Delhi. Bharara later justified this in a statement saying the Justice Department was “compelled” to make sure that victim, witnesses and their families “are safe and secure while cases are pending”. As the case now unravels fast, several US officials, especially those who handled Khobragade’s arrest, may have opened themselves to claims for damages and liability.

    The government has also discovered that the amount of $4,500 quoted by Bharara as salary promised to Sangeeta by Khobragade was actually just a mention of the employer’s salary on the help’s visa application form. The State Department’s own guidelines on diplomatic and consular immunity emphasize that law enforcement officials need to be sensitive because short-term official visitors from other States to the United Nations or to international conferences convened by the UN may enjoy full diplomatic immunity equivalent to that afforded to diplomatic agents. “Owing to the temporary nature of their visit, such officials will normally not have the usual official identity documents recognizable in the United States. Law enforcement officials (particularly in New York) should be sensitive to the existence of this situation and always coordinate with the US authorities indicated in the list of Useful Phone Numbers if confronted with an apparent offender appearing to fall into this category’,” it states. A diplomat’s daughter, Krittika Biswas, had last year filed a lawsuit in a NYC court seeking $1.5 million as damages for her wrongful arrest.

  • Former Liu associates sentenced for Fund-Raising Scheme

    Former Liu associates sentenced for Fund-Raising Scheme

    NEW YORK, NY (TIP): Two former associates of John C. Liu, the New York City comptroller, managed to avoid lengthy prison sentences on Thursday, October 10, for their roles in attempting to funnel money to Mr. Liu’s mayoral campaign through an illegal fundraising scheme, reported The New York Times. Although Jia Hou, a former Liu campaign treasurer, and Xing Wu Pan, a fund-raiser, each faced a maximum sentence of 20 years, it was widely expected that the actual sentence would be far less severe: Both defendants’ lawyers had asked that their clients avoid prison, and prosecutors had asked for no more than 30 months for Ms. Hou, and half that for Mr. Pan. But in a Manhattan courtroom filled with the defendants’ supporters, the judge, Richard J. Sullivan of Federal District Court, sentenced Ms. Hou to 10 months and Mr. Pan to four.

    Afterward, Mr. Liu, who was not charged in the federal investigation into his campaign finances, which dated to 2009, sharply criticized the office of Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, for prosecuting Ms. Hou, 27, who goes by the name Jenny, and Mr. Pan, who is known as Oliver and is in his 40s. “For reasons I may never fully understand,” Mr. Liu said, “the U.S. attorney’s office set out to destroy me with what has been described as an extraordinarily intrusive and exhaustive investigation.” He added: “Failing to find that I had done anything wrong, they proceeded to set up a weak man and a wonderful young woman. Jenny Hou does not deserve this ordeal and injustice she has been put through.” Mr. Bharara’s office declined to comment on Mr.

    Liu’s statement. Prosecutors had charged that Ms. Hou and Mr. Pan relied on so-called straw donors – people whose contributions are reimbursed by others – to raise money with the goal of obtaining city matching funds. Ms. Hou was acquitted of conspiracy but was convicted for her role in the straw-donor scheme. She was also found guilty of lying to federal agents and of obstruction of justice. Mr. Pan was found guilty of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and of attempted wire fraud in relation to a straw-donor scheme. Mr. Liu was not in court Thursday. He commented, “I am very sad but even more angry at what has occurred,” he said. “The U.S. attorney’s office was wrong and should not be proud of its conduct.”

  • FIA Reception Committee Chairman Sarvesh Kumar Dharayan Arrested:

    FIA Reception Committee Chairman Sarvesh Kumar Dharayan Arrested:

    Charged in multimillion bribery and kickback scheme
    NEW YORK (TIP): Only a couple of months ago, The Indian Panorama had come out with comments on the functioning of FIA, much to the chagrin of FIA coterie. It was mentioned then that a former president of FIA was a proclaimed offender in India against whom there was a red corner notice. And since then there has been an addition to the FIA criminals’ list.

    Only this month, on July 17, Chairman of the Reception Committee for the 2013 FIA India Day Parade, Sarvesh Dharayan, aka Sarvesh Kumar Dharayan, was arrested from his home in New Jersey. He has been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, which carries a maximum term of 20 years in prison, one count of conspiracy to violate the Travel Act, which carries a maximum term of five years in prison and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum term of 20 years in prison.

    Here is the detailed report. Eight individuals from New Jersey have been charged in a multimillion bribery and kickback scheme in New York. Five of those charged with paying the kickbacks and one of those charged with receiving the kickbacks, are of Indian origin. Sarvesh Dharayan, Sanjay Gupta, Venkata Atluri, Rangarajan Kumar, Vadan Kumar Kopalle and Darren Siriani have been charged with paying bribes and kickbacks in a lucrative scheme in which these IT vendors paid $2.3 million to get business from a Manhattan-based medical cost management company.

    Those accused of receiving the bribes and kickback include Anil Singh and Keith Bush. None of the companies are named in the complaint and information filed in court. The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara said the eight defendants charged in this multimillion dollar scheme carried out from 2008 to 2012, regarded the bribes and kickbacks as “the cost they imposed for doing business,” a release from his office said.

    “As today’s charges detail, the defendants achieved their years long fraud through fake companies, sham invoices and made-up consulting services,” Bharara is quoted saying. Dharayan, Gupta, Koppalleand Siriani were arrested July 17 at their homes in New Jersey, and appeared in Manhattan federal court before U.S. Magistrate Judge James L. Cott. Singh was arrested in April and pled guilty to honest services fraud and other charges before U.S. District Judge Denise L. Cote on July 11.

    Atluri and Kumar were not yet in custody on the day of filing this news report on July 18. Dharayan, 42, of Edison, N.J.; Gupta, 38 of East Windsor, N.J.; Atluri, 41, of Monmouth Junction, N.J.; Kumar, 47, of Monroe, N.J.; and Kopalle, 43, of Edison, N.J.; were each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, which carries a maximum term of 20 years in prison and one count of conspiracy to violate the Travel Act, which carries a maximum term of five years in prison.

    They were also charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum term of 20 years in prison. Singh, 40, a resident of East Brunswick, N.J., pled guilty to one count each of conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, conspiracy to violate the Travel Act, violating the Travel Act, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

    He faces a maximum penalty of 70 years in prison on all counts. According to the court filings by prosecutors, Singh was a senior vice president and CIO at the New York company which provided nation-wide medical cost management solutions including, among other things, medical reimbursement services. Bush was the director of Database Administration. Singh and Bush had considerable influence over the selection of vendors, specifically vendors of database administrators, hired by the New York company, a release from the Justice Department says.

    From 2008 to September 2012, various individuals collectively paid over $2.3 million in money and other benefits to Singh and Bush. In exchange Singh and Bush agreed to steer millions of dollars of the New York company’s DBA business to them.

  • PROMINENT LEGAL LUMINARIES OF INDIAN ORIGIN IN THE US

    PROMINENT LEGAL LUMINARIES OF INDIAN ORIGIN IN THE US

    WASHINGTON (TIP): Recently, Indian-American Srikanth Srinivasan scripted history after he was confirmed as the first South Asian judge to America’s second highest court. But Srinivasan is not the only famous person of Indian origin who has made it to the top ranks in US judicial system.
    Srikanth Srinivasan was appointed as a judge on the prestigious US Court of Appeals in Washington DC, the highest judicial appointment achieved by an Indian-American. Born in Chandigarh, Srinivasan spent nearly two decades as an extraordinary litigator before serving as Principal Deputy Solicitor General of the United States. Now he will serve with distinction on the federal bench. Srinivasan will be the first South Asian American to serve as a circuit court judge in US history.
    Preet Bharara, who was born in Punjab, is the US attorney for the Southern District of New York. In 2012, Bharara was named by Time magazine as one of ‘The 100 Most Influential People in the World’ and was also featured on a cover of Time Magazine. His office was responsible for the high-profile prosecutions of insider trading and other financial fraud on Wall Street including the investigation against the Galleon Group of Raj Rajaratnam and former McKinsey chief Rajat Gupta. Bharara graduated from Harvard College and Columbia Law School.

    Neal Katyal served as Acting Solicitor General of the United States from May 2010 until June 2011. A graduate of Dartmouth College and Yale Law School, Katyal currently runs the appellate practice at the law firm Hogan Lovells and teaches at the Georgetown University Law Center, where he was one of the youngest tenured professors in the university’s history. Katyal has served as counsel or co-counsel for numerous US Supreme Court cases.

    Amit Mehta, an Indian-origin lawyer, is a partner at Washington law firm Zuckerman Spaeder, and has been involved in many big cases, including helping former IMF president Dominique Strauss-Kahn successfully get criminal assault charges in New York state court dismissed. Mehta, 39, is also a board member of the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, which seeks to reverse and prevent wrongful convictions in DC, Maryland and Virginia.

    Preeta D. Bansal served as the General Counsel and Senior Policy Advisor to the US federal Office of Management and Budget from 2009 until 2011. Before her assignment in the Obama administration, she served as a law partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom

    Amandeep Sidhu is a partner of law firm McDermott Will & Emery in Washington DC. He has built a reputation as a strong litigator with a solid commitment to pro bono cases. He is a founding member of The Sikh Coalition and has fought a pro bono battle on behalf of three Sikh men who wanted to serve in the US Army. He was able to successfully show that the men were able to meet uniform requirements by using Army-issued cloth for the turbans and that even with a beard, the men could not only use a gas mask effectively, but surpass their clean-shaven comrades in field tests. Eventually the men were allowed to join the service, but Sidhu said that he would settle for nothing less than a policy change.

    Kamala Devi Harris is the Attorney General of California following the 2010 California state elections. Earlier she had served as District Attorney of San Francisco from 2004 to 2011. Recently, US President Barack Obama apologized to Kamla Harris, for his comment in which he described the Indian-American as the best-looking attorney general of America – which many alleged was a sexist remark.

  • Indian-American Sri Srinivasan, Kamala Harris headed for US apex court

    Indian-American Sri Srinivasan, Kamala Harris headed for US apex court

    WASHINGTON (TIP): The hearing for Sri Srinivasan’s confirmation as federal judge, the first ever Indian- American to serve the post, began Wednesday, April 10. However, he is quipped to move up to the US supreme court too. Kamala Harris, a California based attorneygeneral who recently got recognized by President Obama is also up for the post. The Indian-American community is easily the country’s best-educated, highest earning ethnic group in the US. It is touted that community can boast of a supreme court justice from its distinguished members before the end of President Obama’s second term.

    President Obama nominated Srinivasan for the DC circuit court, considered as the second highest court in the country. It is also deemed to be the stepping stone to the supreme court. If confirmed Srinivasan will be the first Indian American to be appointed to a federal court.

    There is much riding on his lean shoulders. The hearing was attended by Indian American congressman Ami Bera, and the first and only Hindu congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, another Indian American whose rise in the US judicial system is being closely watched: district attorney Preet Bharara.

    Is he likely to go through? The committee was certainly impressed. What objections could anyone have to your appointment, asked senator Charles Schumer, a Democrat. “You have done a fine job today,” said Republican senator Ted Cruz. Saroja Srinivasan, who came to the US with her husband when Srinivasan was four said, “He is very hardworking and humble.” A distinctly proud mother, who had just heard some very tough politicians say extremely good things about her son. In fact, pundits are already forecasting that Srinivasan will make the top grade before President Obama demits office. “Technically, Sri Srinivasan is just a candidate for the United States court of appeals for the DC circuit, but few are misled.

    The stakes in this nomination are clear: if Srinivasan passes this test and wins confirmation, he’ll be on the supreme court before President Obama’s term ends,” legal maven Jeffrey Toobin wrote on Tuesday in a New Yorker blog, ahead of the much-awaited hearing.

  • US Attorney Preet Bharara’s Lament remains unanswered in Casablanca

    US Attorney Preet Bharara’s Lament remains unanswered in Casablanca

    Excitement over last week’s installment of Preet Bharara’s Political Greed Indictment show caused breathless stories, and many editorials to issue. The editorials, all, use a polite “workingwithin- the-system” incremental approach to incredulously nudge the corrupt and the corrupters towards integrity and honesty – which then permits the “blind eyes,” that USA Bharara lamented as un-indicted coconspirators, to remain blind to the corruption they tolerate, or worse, cause.

    The irony is that those who accumulate power speak of reforms, after they have neutered the essential exceptionalism that is America: separated powers regime. To a student in elementary school it is clear – to accumulate power is un-American and the corruption-root. Every kid gets it.

    In my near 1-year experience as a member of NYS Joint Commission on Public Ethics, I witnessed the effects of JCOPE’s extra-legal controlled existence, over and above that which was infused into the law that gave it birth defects, resulting in extra-legal activities of JCOPE, inter alia, changing the effective date of PIRA’s source funding disclosure to cloak those who gave to a 501c4, with admitted political candidatecoordination equals nothing less than unregulated, excessive and secret donations of “political money” that is tax deductible to boot, and may even permit money laundering of illegal political campaign contributions by foreigners to a “slush fund.” It had been my intention, when I called the Feds in August 2012 to ask for an independent “look-see” of JCOPE, per the MTA principle of citizenship post 9/11 – “See something, say something,” to stay on JCOPE and work within the process to help it achieve what the law allowed it to; but hearing two governors on the radio issuing a calculated insult of my independence was, and is, a price too much to bear for serving the public trust in Casablanca.

    That Moreland Act powers were officially considered earlier in the day to subjugate JCOPE’s left-over independence, not free it of illegal control as I sought Moreland powers to be unleashed for, makes for a great Kabuki play called “Albany.” A trademark lawyer would tell you that “Albany” has taken on secondary meaning. USA Preet Bharara intimated as much. DA Joe Hynes ten years ago spoke of the need for “cultural change” if corruption is to be arrested. Preet Bharara said the same thing last week. I heard Preet Bharara’s “But here we go again. Apparently what we’ve got here is a failure to communicate” statement on March 10, 2011 upon indicting Sen. Carl Kruger – one that I recited while officially sitting on both NYS Boards – IOLA, and later, JCOPE- saying I hear USA Bharara loudly and clearly.

    It didn’t matter. The cancer is cellular, and has metastasized. All one can hope for is that our great USA Preet Bharara will become a cancer surgeon and continue to roll out new installments, albeit, with a quicker drumbeat, and thereby arresting New York’s corruptioncancer such that the body politic has a “ribbon of clean cells” around the political class. Otherwise, Jane and John Q Public who have given up – see our dismal % of registered voters actually voting – will not re-engage with, nor believe in, Lincoln’s government “for the people. ” Before any so-called “reforms” are accepted, let there be a public confession, like Lady Macbeth’s unclean hands seen in public, for the singular reform-pledge broken in, and by, Albany to Mayor Koch – the Independent ReDistricting Pledge – when 10-year Incumbency-Protection Plan was signed into law a year ago to great scripted support of Goo-Goos – Palace Puppies all who roll over and do tricks for their power-masters – is a glaring truth that is Albany.

    Public financing can be a great way to rob the public – I recall in November 2003 then DA Bob Morgenthau, the world’s District Attorney, prosecuting and a just jury, that looked to the evidence and not reputation in convicting a City Councilman, Sheldon S. Leffler, despite his great witnesses in court, for having his real estate contributor, Ms. Stark, break up her obese $10,000 illegal political contribution into $250 checks and money orders so as to rob the public’s match funds pot. Our media, driven by a 24 hour news cycle, twitter-length stories, and lack of any time for investigations and deliberation have bankrupted their vital function to protect society from the three branches of government.

    The Fourth Estate’s reckless speed matches its financial insolvency, while we all see Rome burn and the front pages carry press release-based stories of new laws and “best thing since sliced bread” a la Malcolm Smith. The lack of oversight by the Fourth Estate is the greatest gift to the corrupt and the corrupters – no one is seeing what is in open sight: control-cancer leads to diminishing America’s exceptionalism and threatens to make us a third world Banana Republic. No less than Thomas Jefferson warned that “eternal vigilance” is the price of liberty. Who will help us be free of phony reforms dished out by “blinded eyes” in Casablanca?

  • The Mother of All Insider Trading Cases – Mathew Martoma

    The Mother of All Insider Trading Cases – Mathew Martoma

    Unlike Rajat Gupta, who worked his way into positions of trust and received material nonpublic information, Mathew Martoma stands accused to being smart enough to target Dr. Sidney Gilman, an 80 year old neurologist chairing the experimental medicine’s trials committee, and then to successfully financially “seduce” Dr. Gilman to disgorge valuable confidential information. Anyone who has seen the captivating movie, The Fugitive, with Harrison Ford knows how stock-valuable new medicine trials are. Guess Mathew Martoma may be an inspired movie-goer. That Dr. Gilman is cooperating with USA Preet Bharara’s Office and has signed a Non- Prosecution Agreement and will pay almost $250,000 means Mathew Martoma’s constitutional presumptive innocence may not be of the durable variety.

    The larger question is will Charlie Stillman, Martoma’s lawyer, mimic another great lawyer who fought the government on behalf of a nearsaint, or force Martoma to hold up an objective mirror to his facts and then find the ways and means to bring to an early end the mother of all insider trading trials to a quicker end, and have “smiles and chuckles” aborted in favor of a less painful future. One thing is for sure: the jury will be quite interested in seeing proof of Mathew Martoma personally getting $9 million extra and causing trades, as alleged, and over a quarter billion dollars profit by trading on confidential information. Lastly, Steve Cohen will surely pray that Mathew Martoma asks Rajat Gupta for advice on legal strategies. This prosecution is the most worthy of all, as it seeks to expose the alleged marriage between uncommon smarts being used for illegal greed. This case, more than Rajaratnam or Gupta trials, will enhance public confidence in our capital markets and maybe, just maybe, Wall Street will once and for all reject the false title of Master of the Universe, as even an atheist is offended to see Main Street sacrificed on the alter of illegal greed on Wall Street. What we do know is that the Sheriff of Wall Street, USA Bharara, will dethrone all self-proclaimed “masters” with the Equal Protection Clause of our Constitution.”

    Complete story
    After Raj Ratnam and Rajat Gupta, another Inside Trading story with new dramatis personae -Mathew Martoma, Dr. Gilman and Steven A. Cohen has emerged. Another bombshell dropped on Tuesday, November 20th in the sprawling insider trading investigation being run out of Preet Bharara’s office. The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York unveiled an indictment against former SAC Capital portfolio manager Mathew Martoma accusing him of trading on inside information. According to the government, the illegal tips allowed SAC Capital to reap profits and avoid losses of $276 million, making it the largest insider trading case ever. The conduct alleged in the indictment is nothing short of shocking and egregious.

    It is alleged that Martoma sold massive amounts of Elan (NYSE: ELN) and Wyeth shares in the days leading up to the release of key drug data for the two companies in July 2008. The stock sales came after the trader was tipped off that the drug in question, an Alzheimer’s treatment known as bapineuzumab, was not as effective as had been expected. Even more shocking, the government alleges that the illegal information came from an octogenarian doctor who served as the chairman of the safety monitoring committee overseeing the clinical trial. Martoma, 38, who was a trader for an affiliated SAC Capital hedge fund known as CR Intrinsic, is the sixth current or former SAC employee implicated in insider trading violations. He has been charged with conspiracy and two counts of securities fraud. He allegedly cultivated a relationship with a renowned University of Michigan neurologist named Dr. Sidney Gilman, 80, who subsequently provided Martoma with highly lucrative inside information.

    The two were introduced to one another through a so-called “expert networking” firm. According to Bharara, over the course of around 42 consultations at $1,000 an hour, Martoma convinced Gilman to share information on the drug trial he was working on. Furthermore, the two reportedly became friends and Gilman treated Martoma like a colleague and pupil. On Gilman’s advice, Martoma built up a large stake in both Elan and Wyeth, which was subsequently acquired by Pfizer (NYSE: PFE). Billionaire trading legend and SAC Capital founder Steve Cohen also acquired large stakes in the companies based on Martoma’s recommendation. The pivotal drug data which would substantially effect the price of the two stocks was set to be presented by Dr. Gilman on July 29, 2008. Prior to the presentation, Dr. Gilman was provided with an encrypted 24-page PowerPoint document which revealed that the drug’s efficacy was well below expectations. In fact, the data showed that bapineuzumab failed to halt the progression of Alzheimer’s in patients in the clinical trials. According to the Feds, Gilman subsequently spoke with Martoma for around 1 hour and 45 minutes and actually sent the PowerPoint presentation to the trader along with the password needed to access it. Gilman has been charged civilly by the SEC, but has entered into a nonprosecution agreement with the government and is not named in the criminal indictment. He is cooperating with the Feds.

    At this point, Martoma and Cohen, who is referred to as “Portfolio Manager A” in the indictment held a roughly $700 million position in the two stocks. Specifically, the firm had acquired around $365 million in Elan shares and $335 million in Wyeth shares. This was a very substantial position, even for SAC Capital. Even more significant is the fact that the drug data was expected to be a binary outcome – either good or bad – with a dramatic move in the stock price in either direction. Suffice it to say, that even in the hedge fund world, this kind of bet was seen as bizarre and risky. In fact, other SAC traders had expressed concern over the size of the position given the unpredictable nature of clinical drug trials. When Martoma saw the leaked data, he realized he was in trouble. When the information became public, his and Cohen’s positions would be buried.

    Upon learning the news, Martoma allegedly emailed Cohen, asking “Is there a good time to catch up with you this morning? It’s important.” Subsequently, the two spoke for around 20 minutes on a Sunday. The following day, Cohen instructed his head trader to begin liquidating the fund’s position in Elan and Wyeth and “to do so in a way as to not alert anyone else, inside or outside of the hedge fund.” The indictment does not specify the nature of the discussion between Martoma and Cohen other than to say that Martoma expressed that he was no longer comfortable with the positions. Cohen has not been charged and it is unclear if he was aware of the nature of Martoma’s information. That certainly will be a question that the Feds will want answered and it is likely that they are pressuring Martoma to flip on his former boss if Cohen did indeed know about his inside source. In any event, after the conversation between Cohen and Martoma, SAC Capital began executing a very large liquidation order in Elan and Wyeth shares using dark pools and trading algorithms. Dark pools are trading venues where large investors can execute trades anonymously away from the exchanges.

    The platforms do not identify the brokers and institutions who are trading on the system and orders are hidden until a transaction is completed. Trading algorithms break up large orders into smaller chunks and then efficiently hunt for liquidity to execute against. The purpose of these tools is to cloak the trading activity of large investors such as SAC Capital so that other market participants cannot sniff out their orders and front-run them. “This was executed quietly and effectively over a 4-day period through algos and dark pools and booked into two firm accounts that have very limited viewing access,” the head trader wrote to Cohen on July 27, 2008. “The process clearly stopped leakage of info from either in or outside the firm and in my viewpoint clearly saved us some slippage.”

    While the liquidation of $700 million in stock just days ahead of the release of key drug data might have raised some red flags, what SAC did next was truly shocking. The firm, on the advice of Martoma, began shorting Elan and Wyeth. Portfolios managed by SAC subsequently went from being $700 million long Elan and Wyeth to around $260 million short in the matter of days. Prior to the July 29 announcement, the firm was short 4.5 million Elan shares and 3.3 million Wyeth shares. According to the government, the reasoning for the flip-flop is pretty obvious – Martoma knew exactly what was going to happen. This type of trading activity by itself is extremely suspicious. In fact, the government’s case, is the absolute best explanation for it. Selling or trimming the positions ahead of the trial data would have been understandable. Selling $700 million in shares and then going short to the tune of $260 million basically overnight, on the other hand, looks suspicious.

    Its amazing that Martoma even attempted this. When the data was released on July 29, both Elan and Wyeth plunged. Readers should pull up a chart of Elan, in particular. The stock fell 42 percent on the news and has never recovered. Wyeth lost 12 percent. SAC Capital and Mathew Martoma’s portfolio made millions off of the bearish positions that were allegedly established with insider information. In the short-term, the whole thing turned out unbelievably well for Mathew Martoma. At the age of 34, he reaped a $9.38 million bonus for the year. Subsequently, however, Martoma lost money for the firm in 2009 and 2010. In May 2010, he was terminated on the recommendation of a SAC Capital employee who called him a “one-trick pony with Elan” in an email.

    Despite losing his job, the trader was, by all accounts, living the good life prior to Tuesday morning when the FBI came knocking at 6:30 in the morning. After leaving SAC, Martoma secured a job at Boston-based hedge fund Sirios Capital, although it is unclear if he is currently still employed. The government caught up with him at his $2 million Boca Raton home which he shares with his wife, who is a pediatrician. The Mediterranean-style house is equipped with a luxurious pool and even an elevator, according to the New York Post which called it a “country club estate.” The couple even has a foundation which was funded with nearly $1 million. Basically, it seems like Martoma was living on Easy Street after his big score at SAC.

    Now, he faces a potential 20-year sentence in Federal prison and will be pondering his future while out on a rather steep $5 million bail. In the wake of the charges, Martoma’s lawyer immediately went on the defensive. “Mathew Martoma was an exceptional portfolio manager who succeeded through hard work and the dogged pursuit of information in the public domain,” his attorney, Charles Stillman, said in an emailed statement. “What happened today is only the beginning of a process that we are confident will lead to Mr. Martoma’s full exoneration.”

  • Renita Bakshi receives the “Best President” Award

    Renita Bakshi receives the “Best President” Award

    Renita was presented the award by the world acclaimed innovator, Sam Pitroda

    NEW YORK (TIP): New York based Renita Bakshi, the Co-President of Network of Indian Professionals New York 2012 (NetIP-NY) was recognized as the “Best President-Large City” and “Best Officer” out of 20 chapters and 167 officers that are a part of the Network of Indian Professionals across North America. Renita was presented the award by the world acclaimed innovator, Sam Pitroda. Renita has been instrumental in revitalizing and rebranding the New York chapter. When she had stepped up to the Co-President role in January, the chapter was on the verge of collapsing. Since then Renita has more than tripled the number of paid members for the chapter and is hosting four events a month. She is focused on making the NetIP-NY the premier professional networking organization out there that unites the community to create an impact.

    Under Renita’s leadership, NetIP-NY has introduced some fantastic initiatives that include NY’s first everyearlong charity campaign in partnership with UNICEF’s School’s for Asia program to raise funds to build educational environments for children in need. The chapter has re-strategized its efforts with regards to pillar-focused events. NetIP-NY is partnering with established professional development organizations such as SAMBA (South Asian MBA Association) and TIE NYC (The Indus Entrepreneurs’) to help attendees build lasting business relationships. Furthermore, NetIP-NY is dedicated towards educating the community about how political decisions can impact their lives and what this year’s elections will mean. The political awareness series was launched with Preet Bharara , the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York in a conversation about ethics.

    About NetIP

    The Network of Indian Professionals (NetIP) is a professional, non-profit organization dedicated to the overall achievement and advancement of South Asian professionals. The primary focus of the organization is to foster a bond among South Asian professionals to unite and support each other locally, as well as to give back and contribute positively to the communities in which they live and work. Today, the organization includes over 5,000 members and more than 40,000 subscribers in 24 cities across United States and Canada. NetIP has become a premier networking brand over the years. It is the unequivocal voice for an emerging group of South Asians who excel in every aspect of western society, from business to politics to the arts. The rise of NetIP and its affiliated chapters reflects a general “Coming of Age” by South Asian professionals.

    For more information
    visit www.newyork.netip.org or contact Renita Bakshi at president@netip-ny.org
    (Based on Press Release)