Rakesh Saxena
Rakesh Saxena (born July 13, 1952 in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India) is said to be Indian financier and sometime trader in the now notorious derivatives marketplace. Rakesh Saxena is claimed to be a risk pricing specialist for Quote Platform Syndicate Inc which is a limited company incorporated in the United Kingdom on the 21st of November 2007, company number 643340 and having one thousand £1 pound shares issued to North Shore Trading Corp registered at Saxena's house in 3080 River Road, Richmond, Vancouver, Canada. Quote Platform Syndicate Inc Ltd is managed by Saxena and his eighty three year old mother, Amrit Sarup, as Company Secretary.
The address for Quote Platform Inc Limited is 44 Pandora Road. West Hampstead, London NW6 1TR this is a house owned by Saxena's half brother, Deepak Sarup, a senior vice president and chief information officer at Siam Commercial Bank in Bangkok. LAND REGISTER EXTRACT Title Number : LN151467 Address of Property : 44 Pandora Road,(NW6 1TR) Price Stated :£400,000 Registered Owner(s): DEEPAK SARUP of 44 Pandora Road, West Hampstead, London NW6 1TR. Lender(s): None.
Quote Platform is claimed to be part of a network of international risk buying and arbitrage pools, but in reality there is no actual evidence to support that assertion. He has been said to have been active in the execution of derivatives and insurance contracts, and asset securitizations, particularly in relation to the emerging markets, for nearly three decades, but lately all that has been proved is a growing number of penny share and advance fee scams connected to Saxena as the man behind the scenes pulling the strings.
As of today, he is still engaged in a lengthy fight to avoid extradition to Thailand from Canada; he is accused of embezzlement in 1994–1995. he vehemently denies the allegations and works to clear his name from what he terms a "scapegoating exercise" by previous Thai officials. In spite of these assertions, he has continued to be engaged in "financing ventures" and deals in the Americas, Europe and Africa through intermediaries and uses unregistered share brokers / traders / promoters. Although the evidence of past deals demonstrates that Saxena is always the main beneficiary of any business he becomes involved with.
Early years
Rakesh Saxena studied in India (the elite St Stephen's College, New Delhi) and in Britain, and graduated with a master's degree, (M.A.), in English Literature. Through his family contacts, he was offered a job in a foreign exchange and money market brokerage company. From that point on he concentrated on complex financial transactions and rampant foreign exchangespeculation, first in Delhi, Bombay, Sri Lanka and Singapore, and then for the Oriental Bank of Commerce in Delhi, before the Indian government nationalized it, due perhaps to the huge open currency and interest rate positions built up by Saxena; at that time, Saxena was barely 25 years old.
In the mid-1970s Saxena moved to Hong Kong, where he met his wife, a Thai national. In Hong Kong, 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 arena--e.g. options, futures, swaps etc--and was engaging in huge leveraged deals.
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 where dire poverty continues.
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."
Business in Bangkok
In Bangkok, Saxena dealt in speculation of buying and selling companies and wrote a popular 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, Hong Kong, Israel, Cyprus and Virgin Islands, and number of Swiss bank accounts. He previously had regular bodyguard escort due to his involvements in banking when in Thailand, and remains closely watched by Canadian authorities while under house arrest in Vancouver .
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 public officials and politicians in India, Russia, Thailand, Sinagapore, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon.
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 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. His relationship with Russian tycoons and Arab sheikhs continues to be a subject of speculation.
Detention in Canada
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested Saxena on July 7, 1996 at Whistler, British Columbia, on behest of the Thai police. He was initially imprisoned for 2–3 days in a Canadian pre-trial centre. 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 residence in Vancouver, under his own guards in an effective house arrest at his own expense. On September 4, 1998 Thailand asked authorities in 22 countries to freeze his assets, which, at the time, amounted 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 appeals. On 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; Saxena has expressed doubts that he can be prosecuted at all and whether any prosecution will actually lead to a conviction, given that the evidence in each deal has been found in several countries. Saxena continues to state that the bank collapse in Thailand was triggered by a slowing economy and not by him although the charges are specific to bank and share fraud and not to causing the financial crisis.
On March 3, 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. Saxena is currently on house arrest at his Richmond residence. One of the reasons cited for him not being returned to face prosecution was the recent series of coup d’états in Thailand, which ousted several governments, 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 a later interview Saxena claimed that he had wanted to help Sierra Leone for "ideological reasons" and the last thing on his mind was owning mines in Africa.
General Commerce Bank
Saxena continues to live under house arrest in Canada and works in the main promotiong worthless penny stock investment ventures, worthless to the investors that is who complain of not receiving shares they had paid for or finding out that the companies and the shares were worthless to begin with. Saxena is also known for promising to raise financing for companies for which "back office" fees are charged and sent to bank accounts in the name of his mother Amrit Sarup either in the UK or Canada, and then the promised financing never materialises.
At one point, Adnan Khashoggi and Rakesh Saxena together bought a non-deposit taking bank in Vienna/Austria by the name of General Commerce Bank, from where they allegedly organized international stock and bond deals to the tune of 1 billion US Dollars. That episode has been fully described in reporting as was his involvement in West Shore Ventures and the penny stock scams involving the $18.4 million dollar (US) penny stock frauds that used Martin & Associates client account in Canada.
Saxena is not averse to shorting stocks. He continues to write financial columns on the www.seekingalpha.com website where he was recently mocked for his convoluted and meaningless spoutings on financial business matters. Saxena is often described as a "windbag" in postings responding to his outpourings, he has been described as a "financial terrorist who should be in jail" by one poster to that forum.
According to an unnamed source,one of India's biggest power brokers, Chandraswami (also Nemi Chand Jain), and a senior Indian cabinet minister, Saxena is making options and futures prices on speculative Indian shares from offshore jurisdictions and that he is a price maker for speculators in Mumbai, although this has not been proved to be a genuine quote and may well be of Saxena's own authorship.
Reports in the media and court procedings demonstrate that from his residence in Canada, Saxena continues to conduct highly dubious penny stock deals around the world, and uses his mother as a front for moving money in bank accounts in her name out of an account held at banks in London, UK and Vancouver Canada. He is said (by himself) to be involved in primarily deals in the exotic world of third world debt, foreign exchange and derivatives, but the evidence demonstrates that his main interest is in promoting worthless penny stocks, and making promises of financing to businesses he fails to deliver on.
Recent developments
In August 2006, the 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 initially denied his request for bail but Bail was granted later.
(September 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 military coup that has since transpired effectively and completely changing the government.
(December 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 September 19 coup d'état had made the country an unsafe place for him to return to, Mr Atthapol added.
From the assertions by the Thai AG, not many doubt there is solid evidence to prosecute Saxena he has managed by manipulating the Canadian legal system to stay out of the jurisdiction of the Thai authorities.
Fugitive Thai banker Rakesh Saxena, his former lawyer facing suit over shares - The B.C. Supreme Court has cleared the way for a lawsuit launched by three Americans against fugitive Thai banker Rakesh Saxena, his former lawyer Russ Chamberlain and Vancouver investment dealer Alexandra Triffo.
In a ruling issued this week, Justice Bruce Cohen dismissed a demand by Chamberlain that the suit be stayed until the three Wisconsin residents post a $20,000 security bond to cover his costs.
Larry Kau, Anthony D'Acquisto and William Miller are suing Saxena, Chamberlain and Triffo to recover more than US$100,000 paid for stock in a mining company. They claim that they paid for shares but they were never delivered by Saxena.
(March 2009)
[[1]] Rakesh Saxena, the fugitive Thai banker involved in the longest extradition case in Canadian history, has fallen ill and has been admitted to hospital, possibly delaying his appeal of an extradition order.
He was admitted to Vancouver General Hospital last Sunday and is undergoing tests but the exact nature of his ailment remains a mystery.
Saxena has not yet filed documents necessary to process his appeal and one of his conditions of bail was to file by March 30 or have his bail revoked.
But on Friday, B.C. Court of Appeal Justice John Hall ordered that the bail deadline be extended to April 24.
The judge noted that Saxena’s appeal of an order committing him for extradition is scheduled for May 11 but added that that hearing is now “a bit uncertain” due to the illness. He set the next appearance on the case for April 21.
“Hopefully Mr. Saxena’s health will have improved and we’ll get the [court filing] material in hand.”
Deborah Strachan, who represents the Crown in the case, told the judge that at some point she may apply for an independent medical examination of Saxena.
Outside court, Strachan said that she understands tests are being done on Saxena to determine his medical problems and added “it’s hard to say” whether the illness will result in delays to the hearing.
Saxena is now self-represented and his mother appeared on his behalf in court Friday.
In January the Court of Appeal expressed concern that Canada could suffer a “black eye” if Saxena’s extradition case continues beyond July 2010, the point at which the fraud charges Saxena faces in Thailand become statute-barred and he walks free.
“If the extradition of Mr. Saxena were upheld, but the charges were statute-barred, I am confident reasonably informed members of the general public would be extremely concerned and Canada would be perceived not to have met its international obligations in this case,” said B.C. Court of Appeal Justice Edward Chiasson.
Saxena was arrested in Canada in 1996 and is wanted to stand trial in Thailand for allegedly defrauding the Bangkok Bank of Commerce of the equivalent of $88 million.
After lengthy proceedings, he was initially ordered committed for extradition in 2000. The case dragged on for several more years and then in late 2006 the federal justice department agreed to review the matter after a military coup in Thailand. Last December the department re-affirmed the extradition order and Saxena has appealed that order.
If he loses the appeal, he can appeal again to the Supreme Court of Canada, which has once before dismissed his appeal, but unless the final appeal is expedited the clock could run out on the charges.
Saxenas mother Amrit Sarup arrived in court on Saxena's behalf to plead for extension as Saxena lay in Vancouver General Hospital death bed.
Amrit Sarup is the same individual Saxena uses as a vehicle to defraud individuals by having them deposit moneys into her account, stating that this individual is actually his accountant, so there will show no connection to Saxena. Of late, Saxena has reduced his fraudulent activity to conning unsuspecting individuals out of smaller amounts of investments (i.e. 5000-10000 Canadian Dollars) otherwise known as bottom feeding. United States FBI to seize Saxena's mother's (Amrit Sarup) accounts in banks such as the following
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (account # 70-12810 bank address 1036 West Georgia Street Vancouver BC V6E3C7)
Barclay's Bank (account # 10856363 Victoria Street Douglas Isle of Man Beneficiary address R. B. Morgan)
NatWest Bank (account # 3659-8895 bank address Aldwych Branch P.o. Box 221 Connaught House 65 Aldwych London WC2B4EJ Beneficiary address Amrit Sarup 44 Pandora Road West Hampsted London NW61TR)
HSBC Bank (account # 120-297663-150 bank address 6800 #3 Road Richmond BC Canada V6Y2C4 Beneficiary address Amrit Sarup 3080 River road Richmond BC Canada)
all banks being in the United Kingdom and Canada.
Saxena is also connected to individuals in the State of Nevada Secretary of State and Department of Corporations using individuals such as Dawn Thomson and Rummy Walia to set up corporations on his behalf. Both of these individuals have the following address for contact P.O. Box 20227 Terra Nova 100-3675 Westminster Hwy Richmond BC Canada V7C5W5
[[2]]
The Law Society of B.C. has rejected claims totalling $2.3 million filed by 19 victims of a boiler room stock scheme run by financial fugitive Rakesh Saxena from 2001 to 2003.
The claimants were among hundreds of victims who were pressured by offshore boiler room operators to buy shares of virtually worthless companies listed on the loosely regulated OTC Bulletin Board and "pink sheets" in the United States.
On instructions from the boiler room operators, who had been arranged by Saxena, investors sent a total of $18.4 million "in trust" to Martin & Associates, a Vancouver law firm run by John (Jack) Martin and Craig Iwata. Investors ended up with worthless shares, or in some cases, no shares at all.
In September 2003, the law society became aware of irregularities in the law firm's trust accounts and hired forensic accountant Bill Kinsey to review its books and records.
In October 2003, the law society appointed a custodian to take over the firm's practice, and the society's discipline committee recommended a citation be issued against Martin and Iwata on account of the trust account irregularities. Martin immediately resigned, and Iwata agreed to suspend his practice.
In May 2004, Kinsey filed a report that went beyond the trust account irregularities, to the heart of the stock scheme.
It revealed that little of the money provided by investors to buy shares had been remitted to the public companies. Instead, nearly all was distributed -- on Saxena's instructions -- to third parties, including $501,426 to Saxena's mother.
Kinsey said another $1.6 million was paid to the law firm, but it was not clear why the firm got so much money: "The files indicate, with few minor exceptions, Martin & Associates did little legal work other than that related to the trust accounting."
He also said he "saw nothing to indicate that Martin & Associates was concerned with representations made [by the boiler room operators] to would-be investors."
He added that sales documents given to investors initially indicated the law firm "would not release investors' funds until certain events took place," but "little or no appropriate due diligence took place" and this release provision was discontinued for later offerings.
Two months later -- in July 2004 -- Martin and Iwata admitted to trust account violations and agreed to 10-year market suspensions. The law society warned that, if they reapplied after their suspensions expired, it would raise the issue of them aiding and abetting a scheme they knew, or ought to have known, was dishonest.
Saxena, who is wanted in Thailand for allegedly embezzling $88 million from the Bangkok Bank of Commerce and has been holed up in Canada for a dozen years, was not charged by RCMP or the B.C. Securities Commission, and resumed his dirty stock dealings from his home in Richmond, where he is under house arrest.
Meanwhile, 19 investors filed claims with the law society totalling $2.3 million. They argued that the society should pay them from its Special Compensation Fund, which was set up to reimburse clients in the event of lawyer fraud.
However, the society said there was "no evidence the claimants placed any conditions on the firm," or that the claimants had any communication with the law firm, or that the law firm did anything "other than act as a conduit for the transmission of the claimants' money."
Martin and Iwata also argued they held the money "in trust" for their client Saxena, not the investors, and disbursed those funds on the instructions of their client.
The net result was that the Special Compensation Committee decided the investors were never clients of the firm, and rejected all the claims (except one which involved extenuating circumstances).
What are we to think of all this?
First, the society acted quickly to put Martin and Iwata out of business and unwind their practice. This was an expensive process. To date, the total cost of the custodianship and related forensic accounting services has been $1.7 million.
Second, by prosecuting them on the basis of trust account irregularities, the law society has ensured they will not be able to practise for at least 10 years. If and when they try to come back, they will have some pretty high hurdles to jump.
Now what about the investors? Were they fairly treated? In my view, yes and no.
With regard to the compensation issue, I don't think the law society had any obligation to reimburse investors. Investors claimed that sending their money to a Canadian law firm "in trust" gave them confidence that the scheme was legitimate. But it has never been clear what they expected the firm to do, other than forward the money to its client.
On the other hand, the law society failed to canvass the whole issue of the propriety of the lawyers' dealings with Saxena. Kinsey's report makes it clear that Martin and Iwata knew, or ought to have known, they were aiding and abetting a stock scam.
Clearly, if they had called any of the people who were sending cheques to their firm "in trust," they would have learned they had been solicited by offshore telemarketers.
And if they had done the most rudimentary inquiry into the stocks these people were buying, they would have learned they were essentially worthless bulletin board issues.
And certainly, they had to know their client was a financial fugitive who was fighting extradition to Thailand. This had been well publicized in the media.
As events unfolded, Martin and Iwata were not cited for these shortcomings. Investors have the right to be frustrated by that, but I don't think it makes any material difference to their situation, or to the lawyers' situation.
Also, the law society has not ignored the broader issue. In 2005, it passed a new rule explicitly stating that lawyers must not do anything that assists or encourages dishonest activity; that they have a duty to guard against becoming a tool or dupe of an unscrupulous client; and in some cases, they have a duty to make appropriate inquiries.
In 2007, the law society put investors on notice that it would not compensate clients who forward money to lawyers on account of investment schemes that go awry: "The intention of the Special Compensation Fund is to assist innocent victims of dishonest lawyers, not to act as an insurer respecting highly speculative and questionable investment schemes," it stated.
The message is that investors have to act prudently. It's an old message, but still a good one.
dbaines@vancouversun.com
Charges Against Saxena
Saxena has been accused of many things but so far has not convicted of anything. Thanks to the delays in extradition formal charges are yet to be prosecuted in Thailand but they have been promulgated.
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 three others of conspiring to kill her husband. Pillai was introduced to Saxena by some prominent Indian power brokers, including Chandraswani. The cases are not going anywhere due to lack of evidence. The tycoon's widow, former model Nina Pillai, was considered very close to Saxena by people who saw her often at Saxena's Bangkok residence. Former bank officials in Thailand have claimed that Nina Pillai continued to be financed by Saxena after her husband's death. These are circumstantial rumors that may have no foundation and which, to a large part, create the mystique of Saxena's reputation.
Government of Thailand accused Saxena of 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. At the last hearing in Vancouver Saxena was not able to attend being in hospital, his aged mother went to court, he did not have legal representation at that hearing having taken that role upon himself.
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 said to be linked to some of the major hedge funds of the late 1990s, particularly relating to third world bonds and leveraged currency and interest rate derivatives on such bonds however, the evidence for that remains to be seen.
The various allegations against Saxena are clearly not going to come to an end. According to Chandraswami, this is one person who dreams with his eyes fully open, without fear, without self-doubt; but in the end he is being shown to be no different from the pack of Vancouver based penny stock promotors who have been proved to deal in worthless investments in the high risk OTCBB and Pink Sheets in the USA.
What next?
As financial regulators across the world begin to understand and come to terms with derivatives, new and strict cross border regulations are in the pipeline to curb the worst excesses of such financial instruments.
Quote Platform Syndicate Group is claimed by Saxena to be part of an international network of risk buying pools engaged in the pricing of credit default swaps, synthetic collateral debt obligations, political risk insurance contracts, index put options, far-forward FX contracts and asset securitizations. The principals of the "Group" (Saxena and his eighty three year old mother, his half brother Deepak insists that he is not connected to Quote Platform although it is registered at a house he owns in London), are claimed to have been actively engaged in the business of financial engineering for 30-plus years. The "Group" is promoted by him as being specifically geared for developing market-related transactions. However, the history of business dealings of Rakesh Saxena over the past ten years during his house arrest in Vancouver Canada has proven that he is in the main making money out of highly dubious penny stock deals which leaves investors with worthless investments and Saxena with their money. Quote Platform as described by Saxena has all the appearances of a well promoted fiction intended to disguise his real business dealings in penny stocks, the history of which which can be found throughout the postings on the World-Wide-Web.