No politician ever talks of hawala and black money in detail either because they are too compromised or they are simply too ignorant of economic or financial issues. And that is exactly what the ex-Income Tax officer turned activist has done in his latest expose

Arvind Kejriwal, former officer of the Indian Revenue Services (IRS) turned activist-politician has alleged that despite receiving a list of 700 people who have bank accounts in HSBC in Geneva, the Indian government is reluctant to take action against big names like the Ambanis, Tandons, Goyal, Burmans of Dabur and Yash Birla.

Kejriwal said, the list has names and amounts in bank accounts of Mukesh Ambani (Rs100 crore), Anil Ambani (Rs100 crore), Motech Software Pvt Ltd (a Reliance Group company) (Rs2,100 crore), Reliance Industries—RIL (Rs500 crore), Sandeep Tandon (Rs125 crore), Anu Tandon (Rs125 crore), Kokilaben Ambani (She has an account but there was no balance on that date), Naresh Kumar Goyal (Rs80 crore), Burmans (three family members) (Rs25 crore) and Yashovardhan Birla (no balance).

Sandeep Tandon was a former senior official of the customs and enforcement directorate and extremely close to the Mukesh Ambani group. Tandon, who was the RIL group’s advisor, died in March 2010—in Switzerland. His wife Anu Tandon is a Congress Member of Parliament from UP and is widely seen to be backed by Mukesh Ambani.
 

You may also want to read Another Fake by Sucheta Dalal.

After receiving the list in July 2011, the Income Tax (I-T) department conducted raids across the country. Kejriwal alleged that the Ambani brothers have admitted these accounts and have paid taxes on the amounts that existed in their personal names. He also said, that Mukesh Ambani is understood to have met the then finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and requested him not to raid Reliance Industries and shown readiness to pay taxes to “buy peace”.

In a statement, RIL denied all allegations made by Kejriwal against the company and its chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani. "Neither Reliance Industries Ltd nor Mukesh Ambani have or had any illegitimate accounts anywhere in the world. Reliance Industries has business interests in several countries with turnover of thousands of crores in rupees. As a part of their normal business, these international subsidiaries of Reliance Industries deal with several global banks including HSBC. These accounts are fully compliant with all regulations and are disclosed in their appropriate jurisdictions and in India. The continued tirade of baseless allegations being made by IAC against us appears to be instigated by vested interests," the company said in the statement.

Rejecting allegations of stashing away unaccounted money in Swiss accounts, Jet Airways said there is no account in the name of its Chairman Naresh Goyal in HSBC Bank's Geneva branch, though he is entitled to have bank accounts outside India as he is a non-resident Indian (NRI).

Rejecting allegations made by Kejriwal at a press conference in which he had accused HSBC Geneva of money laundering and that Burman brothers had accounts there, a statement issued by Dabur India said: "It was unfortunate that every person having a foreign bank account is being painted with the same brush."

"We wish to state that these accounts were opened by the Burman family members when they were NRIs, and were legally allowed to open such accounts," Dabur added.

Kejriwal said the I-T department conducted three raids on 28 July 2011 in Delhi and recorded statements from three people in the list. All three-Parminder Singh Kalra, Vikram Dhirani and Praveen Sawhney-admitted to the genuineness of the information and accepted that they had Swiss bank accounts, which had not been declared for taxation.

Here are the statements given by Kalra, Dhirani and Sawhney to the I-T department...
 

The statements by the three reveal that HSBC is openly and brazenly running a hawala racket in India. "From their statements, it appears that perhaps it is easier to open a Swiss bank account than it is to open an account in SBI. You just need to contact HSBC in India. They would send someone to your home, who would get the forms filled up, take money in cash from you and your account would get opened in Geneva or Dubai. You don't need to go out of India to open an account. Likewise, you don't need to go abroad to operate your account. You are given the name and mobile number of someone in Geneva. If you have to deposit cash or withdraw money, you just call up that person. Immediately someone in India from HSBC would visit your house. If you have to deposit cash, you hand over the cash to that person. Corresponding amount in dollars would get credited to your account in Switzerland. If you have to withdraw money, that person would deliver that much cash to you," Kejriwal alleged.

According to the social activist-turned politician, involvement of Kalra, Dhirani and Sawhney in hawala could be established only when they were raided and their statements were recorded by the I-T department. In this connection, Kejriwal raised questions like...

1. Why were Ambanis, Naresh Goyal, Burmans and Birlas not raided? Why were their statements not recorded? It appears that small people in that list were raided and bigger and powerful people were let off.
2. How did the money lying in their Swiss accounts reach there? How did the money travel to and from these accounts regularly? Through hawala, as it is turning out in all other cases?
3. Are Ambani brothers, Naresh Goyal, Burmans and Birlas guilty of indulging in hawala activities?
4. What transactions took place from these bank accounts? Were any bribes paid to politicians or bureaucrats?

According to Kejriwal, HSBC is facilitating the hawala racket in India, which is serious crime under the FEMA and Prevention of Money-Laundering Act (PMLA). “In October 2011, a report was sent by Director of Investigations, Delhi to Director General of Investigations, Delhi. The report clearly stated that HSBC officials were indulging in hawala and also encouraging tax evasion in India. The report also said that HSBC's Dubai and Geneva branches do not have a license from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to conduct banking operations in India and their operations in India were completely illegal. It is more than a year, yet no action has been taken against HSBC,” the social activist said.

He said, when HSBC was caught in similar activities, the US government initiated strong action against top executives of the bank and forced them to reveal the complete list of US accountholders in their Swiss branches. However, he alleged that despite receiving a list of 700 people and information about their Swiss bank accounts, the Indian government is not taking any action on the bank and these listed entities.
 

To read Tax evasion: Broken trail, click here.

Here are the demands made by Kejriwal...

1. Top officials of HSBC should be immediately arrested under PMLA.Is this not a fit case for charging them against sedition and raging war against India?
2. Operations of HSBC should immediately be suspended in India.
3. Like it was done by US, HSBC should be asked to provide complete list and bank statements of all Indians who have had their accounts in its Geneva branch in last ten years.  
4. All those whose names figure in the list of 700 people, including Ambani brothers, Naresh Goyal, Burmans and Birlas should be raided and their statements recorded. They should be asked to produce complete bank statement. They should be asked to explain each entry-both debit and credit. Where did the money come from, how did it come and to whom was money paid and for what. Accordingly, action should be initiated against all of them under various laws.  
5. They should be arrested if they are found prima facie guilty to have sent their money abroad through hawala and if they are prima facie guilty under PMLA or PCA.
   
   To read how HSBC lured greedy US-based Indians with schemes that would help them avoid paying US taxes, please click here.