The Supreme Court order pretty much blows most of the myths Speak Asia’s senior panellists have used to keep the rumour alive that Speak Asia was going to restart its Ponzi scheme if panellists’ only remained patient
Seemingly out of the blue, last Friday, writ 383 which had been heard in the Supreme Court of India for just under a year was withdrawn, leaving the case disposed of by the court.
Speak Asia’s supporters scrambled to make the best of the news,
assuring everyone that “nothing negative” had been said about the
company and to wait for the SC order to be published.
The All India Speak Asia Panelist Association, who usually rush to
publish anything remotely positive hours after a court appearance, were
noticeably subdued. AISPA released a statement a few hours after the
disposal that they would only publish something after the order was out.
Meanwhile whoever runs the Speak Asia “corporate marketing” blog,
assured their followers there was nothing to worry about. A post put up
on the 21st September reads…
While our department for corporate affairs analyzes these latest
developments, we would like to assure all our panelist in India that the
company remains committed to solving this impasse and is very keen to
re-start the business at the earliest opportune moment.
Of particular note was the change in tone, in opposition of any agency that did not comply with the Speak Asia agenda:
The company assures full cooperation with any agency or authority that has the jurisdiction on this situation and
wishes to fulfill its commitment to refunding the subscription amounts
to all those who have opted for the exit option of the company.
To the best of my knowledge to date no government agency has committed
to the refund of subscription amounts, a business restart or even the
mere entertaining of the Speak Asia “exit option”.
The CID however have filed a criminal charge sheet against the company, the Enforcement Directorate have filed a money laundering case, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) stated Speak Asia was “akin” to a “money circulation scheme” in a cautionary it sent to Indian banks in May 2011 and the EOW have labeled the Speak Asia Ponzi scheme “the largest fraud case they’ve ever seen”.
Earlier today those behind the Speak Asia “corporate marketing” blog
felt the need to publish a clarification to their earlier statements,
which despite allegedly referring to itself made several references to
“the company” and appeared strikingly similar to the baseless and full
of rhetoric “news” that has been published on Facebook,
AISPA and Speak Asia Mobi-Club (all run by senior panelists acting as
defacto local management) over this past year and a half.
The company has been fighting its battle for survival for more than
a year’s period and at this stage, your cooperation and patience in
this battle is highly appreciated. We would urge the same deliberation
from all of you for times to come.
With all the efforts in line we are bound to overcome the difficult times.
Along with the above statements are a series of wishful thinking dreams
which, given the gravity revealed by the publishing of the Supreme Court order for the writ 383 disposal hearing on the 19th September, seem all the more unlikely.
Taking on a tone that suggested they’d been misled by Speak Asia and its senior panelists behind the writ until the ‘Investigating Officer, Economic Offences Wing (III), Crime Branch, C.I.D.,
Mumbai‘ filed an affidavit on March 3rd 2012 to clear things up, the SC
most strikingly admit that the matter of payment to the 115 signed petitioners of the writ is ‘not a matter which could be resolved by way of mediation‘.
Two primary reasons are given for this, the first being that whereas writ 383 pertains only to the 115 signed
petitioners (Speak Asia management and senior panelists have been
falsely claiming the writ covered all panelists), the SC wholly
acknowledge that in passing any order under writ 383 in regards to
payments, that they ‘cannot turn a blind eye if other investors also come with a similar petition‘.
Why is that such a big deal?
The answer lies in the Supreme Court’s views and acceptance of the affidavits filed by Indian authorities.
The Investigating Officer filed another affidavit on 15.09.2012
wherein it was stated that in connection with the crime, several persons
had been arrested and incriminating documents were seized and some
persons stated to have been involved in the crime are still at large and
are not co-operating with the investigation.
The Enforcement Directorate had also registered a case under Money Laundering Act against the accused company.
The counter affidavit further states that the accused persons had misappropriated amount to the tune of Rs.2,276 crores out of which a sum of Rs.141 crores had been frozen in several bank accounts in the name of so called Master franchises/Collection agents and franchises throughout India.
We are of the view that in the light of the above facts this Court
is not justified in invoking its jurisdiction under Article 32 of the
Constitution of India in working out any scheme for settling the disputes which are criminal in nature.
Long time followers of BehindMLM’s coverage of the Speak Asia scam will note that this echoes the exact sentiments put forth on this website back in November 14th 2011, before the first mediation session even took place.
I’ve been banging this drum for a while now, but I’ll reiterate
once again that no bank in India is going to do business with Speak Asia
whilst there are criminal investigations and court cases pending
against the company.
You can set up 100 committees led by whoever you want to act as
mediators but still no bank is going to take on the liability of
transferring funds from a company under criminal investigation.
The idea behind the Lahoti Committee, or any other such committee
is ridiculous. At the end of the day the criminal investigations are
going to trump any civil proceedings demanding money from the company (yes, even the AISPA case).
Speak Asia’s panelists getting paid depends entirely on the outcome of the criminal cases.
Of course when you have Speak Asia’s lawyers willingly perjuring themselves in court and completely mislead proceedings
by doing things like present the court with a completely fabricated
business model that was never even used, it’s no wonder it’s taken the Supreme Court to finally get to the bottom of things and see writ 383 withdrawn under heavy judge-influenced persuasion.
And on the topic of misleading, some other myths purported by AISPA,
Ashok Bahirwani and the rest of the senior panelist propaganda machine
blown wide open by the Supreme Court order include:
• the verified existence of an ED money laundering case (denied by Speak Asia, AISPA and the senior panelist management)
• the fact that 15 of the 115 signed writ 383 petitioners were ‘instrumental in running‘ Speak Asia who recruited ‘big amounts of innocent members/investors‘
• “petitioner
3″ of writ 383 (who exactly this is I’m not aware of) operated as a
“franchise” of respondents 3 and 4 in the case (Speak Asia and Haren
Ventures respectively)
• that petitioners ’6 to 101′ had only invested ‘invested the meager amount of Rs.11,000 each‘ and had only signed the petition after “representatives” of Speak Asia and Haren Ventures approached them and
‘approached them at their respective addresses in Southern States and
had assured them that the money invested by them would be returned to
them provided they gave their signatures‘. Interrogation by the authorities revealed that said petitioners were ‘ignorant about any Petition filed in the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India and the contents as well as the purpose thereof‘.
Had this of all been out on the table way back last year whilst Speak
Asia, Haren Ventures and their defacto Indian based management of senior
panelists misled the court, no doubt the mediation proceedings would
have never been ordered in the first place, the recall of which upon the
court learning of some of the details the authorities’ investigations
have thus far uncovered.
And on the topic of investigation, with the Supreme Court unequivocably
giving it’s blessing to the proceeding of any investigations, all eyes
now turn to the next writ 3611 hearing, currently slated for hearing on
the 26th September.
When we last checked in, AISPA had told the High Court that the stay on
the EOW’s investigation needed to remain whilst they sought
clarification from the Supreme Court on whether or not writ 383 would
take precedence over criminal investigations.
A claim that now (and given the Supreme Court’s previous clarifications on the matter) wholly seems like a moot point.
Before the Mumbai High Court the EOW seemed to be closing in on senior
panelists and Speak Asia’s defacto managment (largely connected to
AISPA) with arrests pending. As the Supreme Court notes of the most
recent affidavit filed by the investigating officer on September 15th,
in connection with the crime, several persons had been arrested and
incriminating documents were seized and some persons stated to have
been involved in the crime are still at large and are not co-operating
with the investigation.
It is widely believed that Ashok Bahirwani was on the verge of being
arrested in connection with his (publicly unknown) involvement in the
Speak Asia scam. Before that could happen though, AISPA (of whom
Bahirwani is the Secretary and public spokesperson of), the Mumbai High
Court ordering a temporary stay on the EOW’s investigation, pending
AISPA’s request to ‘seek clarification from the Supreme Court‘.
AISPA President Melwyn Crasto had already been arrested, interrogated
and jailed over his involvement in the scam (as a “prime promoter”) and
the deposit of funds into his personal accounts from Speak Asia that he
“could not explain” to the EOW.
Looking forward, if the Indian authorities are on the ball and quick to
get things back on track we might be in for some very interesting
upcoming weeks.
The Supreme Court order pretty much blows most of the myths Speak
Asia’s senior panelists have used to keep the rumor alive that Speak
Asia was going to restart its Ponzi scheme if panelists’ only remained
patient. Along with the disposal of writ 383 due to voluntary
withdrawal, it’ll certainly be interesting to see how the facts in the
latest SC order are spun to suit their needs.
At the time of publication, other than the empty rhetoric over at the
Speak Asia corporate marketing blog, they haven’t been able to come up
with anything.
Stay tuned.
The full writ 383 Supreme Court disposal order can be viewed over at the Supreme Court of India website.
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