Rakesh Saxena
Rakesh Saxena (born July 13, 1952 Indore) is an Indian financier. As of December 2006, he is awaiting extraditions from Canada to Thailand accused of embezzlement.
Early Years
Rakesh Saxena studied in India (the elite St Stephen's College, New Delhi) and in Britain, and graduated with master's degree, (M.A.) in English Literature. Somehow, he was offered a job in a Jewish owned forex brokerage company and from that poin on he concentrated on financial deals and foreign exchange speculation, first in Delhi, Bombay and South India, and then working for the Oriental Bank of Commerce in Delhi, before the Indian government nationalized it.
Saxena moved to Hong Kong, where he met his second wife, a Thai national. He first worked as a foreign exchange dealer in Kowloon, and then joined Wocom Commodities. He moved his base to Bangkok in 1985 where the Bank of Thailand had announced the opening up of the forex markets. Very soon, he shifted focus to the derivatives--e.g. options, futures, swaps etc--and began engaging in huge leveraged deals, a habit which continues to this day.
A Marxist Millionaire
As a student, he embraced Marxism, and Saxena's consulting work continues to be informed by Marxist political theory - something the west has all but written off, but which is still pertinent in places like Asia and Africa.
Saxena sees no contradiction in being a wealthy Marxist. He is a theorist, not an activist, he said.
"I'm not a Che Guevara," he said. "I'm not going to go sit in the jungle fighting. My analysis is basically a Marxist analysis of risk. I'm not a capitalist. I make money through sheer brain power."
However, reliable sources suggest that Saxena was an active member and ideologue of the extremist [Naxalite] movement in the 1970s and he has continuted to support far-left parties in Nepal and in India, including the Maoist Communist Parties of India and Nepal.
Business in Bangkok
In Bangkok, Saxena dealt in speculation of buying and selling companies and wrote a financial column in the Bangkok Post, spoke in seminars of foreign exchange trading and formed numerous contacts in the business community. Among his interests were mines in Sierra Leone, companies in Australia, Belize, Canada, Cayman Islands, Russia, Thailand and Virgin Islands, and number of Swiss bank accounts. He had regular bodyguard escort due to his involvement with politicians everywhere. His accountant Les Hammond later admitted that he had founded a number of shell companies in several countries.
Bangkok Bank of Commerce
In 1989 Saxena became advisor to Krirk-kiat Jalichandra, new senior vice-president of Bangkok Bank of Commerce. The bank tried hostile takeovers against many of the large Thai companies that traded publicly on the stock exchange. According to later investigation, it also gave cheap loans to various Thai public officials and politicians.
Bangkok Bank of Commerce collapsed in 1996 and the Bank of Thailand took it over. The collapse contributed to the Asian financial recession, economic and political crisis and the 1997 devaluation of the baht. Saxena was at his residence in Prague or Zurich at the time the story broke, and he never returned to Thailand.
In June 1996, Thai authorities charged Saxena, Krikkiat Jalichandre, Oleg Boiko, Rajan Pillai and Adnan Khashoggi and number of other people for embezzling money estimated to be worth $US2.2 billion (or according to other estimates, $US88 million). Saxena himself had allegedly siphoned off £300 million in 1992-1993 through a string of derivative transactions. Saxena said that he was just an advisor and a trader, that the collapse of the real estate markets was the real trigger of the recession.
Detention in Canada
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested Saxena in July 7 1996 at Whistler, British Columbia, on behest of the Thai police. He was initially imprisoned in the Canadian jail. Saxena resisted extradition, claiming that he would be killed if he would return to Thailand.
In February 1998 Saxena was put on bail of $2.5 million because he was regarded as a flight risk. British Columbia Supreme Court overturned this ruling in June 24 1998 and allowed him to resist extradition living in his $500.000 house in Vancouver, under his own guards in an effective house arrest at his own expense. September 4 1998 Thailand asked authorities in 22 countries to freeze his assets, which, at the time, amounted to equal to $135-300 million. Thailand also filed a civil suit against him.
In September 2005 the lower Canadian court ruled that Saxena should be extradited but the government of Canada did not enforce a ruling. Saxena further delayed his extradition with further appeals. In October 21 2005 Canadian court postponed Saxena's extradition once again until January 2006. Statute of limitations under Thailand law regarding his case may have already ended after 10 years of his fighting extradition.
On January 27, 2006 Rakesh Saxena lost his B.C. Court of Appeal bid to overturn the federal justice minister's order that he be surrendered to Thai authorities, despite his contention that he could by killed or tossed in an inhumane prison cell in Thailand. Saxena's lawyer appealed. Rakesh is currently on house arrest at his Richmond residence. One of the possible reasons cited for him being released was the recent coup d’état in Thailand, which ousted the internationally recognized government, thus causing significant turmoil for the crown.
Business with Sierra Leone
A military coup ousted president Ahmad Tejan Kabbah of Sierra Leone in May 1997. Kabbah fled to Guinea and set up a government in exile. Around July 1997 he contacted British mercenary Tim Spicer of the Sandline International to organize a counter-coup. Saxena agreed to finance the countercup in exchange of diamond exploration permits.
According to the British Parliament's Report of the Sierra Leone Arms Investigation, Saxena would raise the money so that Sandline could hire soldiers and buy equipment. In return, Kabbah would give Saxena's companies permits for diamond exploration and promises of further business. Saxena would pay Sandline for their operations. However, someone leaked the relevant documents to The Globe and Mail. In an interview the same year Kabbah denied knowledge of any negotiations with Saxena.
According to Spicer, who testified for the Report, Saxena did not give them the funds he had promised; reports have contradicted Spicer on this issue. Sandline bought more weapons from Bulgaria but they were too late - Nigerian-lead troops loyal to Kabbah had already seized the capital. As a result, Saxena did not receive the permits. Later British government investigation confirmed that Kabbah had not told the whole truth. In later interview Saxena claimed that he wanted to help for "ideological reasons".
General Commerce Bank
Rakesh Saxena was until recently allegedly fraudulently active in Britain (West Shore Ventures) South Africa in 2004(Platinum Asset Management) and then Botswana (Investor Relations), South Africa (Phoenix Capital Partners) , as the Sunday Standard and Dr. Alexander von Paleske had revealed in August 2005.
He has been living in Canada since 1996, constantly on the phone until January, when he was put back into prison, up to then in self paid house arrest, pursuant to an extradition request from Thailand dating back to 1996.
Adnan Khashoggi, Rakesh Saxena and Amador Pastrana together bought a bank in Vienna/Austria by the name of General Commerce Bank, from where they allegedly organized international fraud to the tune of 1 billion US Dollars. With them the US-convicted criminals Regis Possino, Sheman Mazur and Raoul Berthamieu. Victims came from many countries including Australia, Britain, South Africa. Saxena's role has never been determined. The Austrian government has not charged him with anything.
Reports suggest that Saxena from his residence conducts several questionable and high-profile deals around the world, primarily deals in the exotic world of third world debt and derivatives; many such deals are, until now, outside the regulatory umbrella.
Recent developments
In August 2006 Thai government set up a new team to seize the rest of Saxena's assets overseas and were targeting those in Canada. Minister Chidchai Wannasathit ordered the Anti-Money Laundering Office and the Royal Thai Police to help the Attorney-General in this task. Canadian Appeals court denied his request for bail. [Bail was granted later].
Rakesh Saxena was also a defendant in number of Civil Lawsuits in United States, including in the United States District Court for the District of Nevada; he won those cases or those cases simply faded away.
(Sep 22) A lengthy extradition case against Rakesh Saxena is likely to come to a close shortly, with the fugitive banker expected to be sent back to Thailand within three months.
Virapong Boonyobhas, the director of the Business Crime and Money Laundering Data Bank at Chulalongkorn University, told a seminar yesterday on white-collar crime that Mr Rakesh was likely to lose his extradition battle and be returned to Thailand by the end of the year. Boonyobhas did not anticipate the miliary coup.
(Dec 8)The Office of the Attorney-General, Thailand (OAG) will send a letter today to the Canadian justice ministry affirming that fraud suspect Rakesh Saxena would be safe in Thailand, spokesman Atthapol Yaisawang said yesterday. Mr Saxena appealed to the Canadian Supreme Court not to extradite him to Thailand on the grounds that legal uncertainties since the Sept 19 coup d'etat had made the country an unsafe place for him to return to, Mr Atthapol added.
Charges Against Saxena
Saxena has been charged of many things but so far has not convicted of anything. Even the charges are allegations largely made by individuals.
In India, Saxena has been accused with culpable homicide, extortion, uttering death threats and cheating in the death of biscuit tycoon Rajan Pillai. Those allegations were laid after the tycoon's widow accused Saxena and two others of conspiring to kill her husband. The cases are not going anywhere due to lack of evidence. The tycoon's widow, Nina Pillai, was considered very close to Saxena by many people.
Government of Thailand accuse Saxena embezzling $88 million from the Bangkok Bank of Commerce (BBC) and seeks his extradition from Canada. The bank has separately filed civil proceedings against Saxena. He has filed a counter-suit. This case appears not to be progressing either.
The collapse of the BBC was one of the first dominoes in a financial crisis that spread across Asia, shaking the world economy in 1997. While some blame Saxena for sparking the inferno - The Wall Street Journal described him as the "Mrs. "Leary's cow of the global financial crisis" - he is not facing court action on that score. He is also linked to some of the major hedge fund problems of the late 1990s, particularly problems linked to third world bonds and leveraged currency and interest rate derivatives on such bonds and to problems now associated with Russian and East Europe privatizations.
No charges were laid in the ill-fated Sierra Leone affair. The British Parliament's Report of the Sierra Leone Arms Investigation concluded that the purchase of weapons with Saxena's money only technically broke a United Nations embargo and that Canada was not yet enforcing the embargo.