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-   -   Rs.11 Crore Fraud in the name of VW alias Vashishta Wahan (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-scene/6529-rs-11-crore-fraud-name-vw-alias-vashishta-wahan.html)

Please see this thread in the Indian Express online today...are we as a people really unworthy of the 'Corrupt' tag?

http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems...adesh&Topic=0&


In Volkswagen name, look who got 11 crore from Andhra
Tuesday July 12 2005 09:28 IST

NEW DELHI: Tucked in the bustling Community Centre market in south Delhi’s East of Kailash neighbourhood is House No 45. A narrow flight of stairs leads you to the basement below. This is the registered office of chartered accountants Vinod Dua and Associates and Vashishta Wahan Private Limited.

Vashishta Wahan is the firm where YSR Reddy’s Congress government in Andhra Pradesh pumped in 2 million Euros (about Rs 11 crore) in equity to ostensibly help set up a Volkswagen manufacturing unit in Vizag. (The firm’s initials are VW, the same as that of the global car giant).

So far so good. But Volkswagen says the deal is a fraud: it has nothing to do with Vashishta Wahan which passed itself off as its Indian arm. Helmuth Schuster, the man who was negotiating with the AP government, has been sacked by his German bosses. The TDP has demanded a CBI inquiry.

Andhra Pradesh Minister for Industries Bosta Satyanarayana confirmed to German radio ARD, which first reported the deal, that Andhra Pradesh Industries Corporation transferred the money to Vashishta Wahan following a state government order. He was not available for comment on Monday.

The Andhra Pradesh government had been negotiating with Volkswagen for more than a year on a manufacturing unit in Vizag. The chief negotiator for Volkswagen was Schuster.

In early January, the state government received a letter from Schuster. The letter, neatly typed on Volkswagen letterhead, confirmed that the company was going ahead with the project. For a joint venture with the government, Schuster sought transfer of 2 million Euros to Vashishta Wahan, a company affiliate.

Speaking to this website's newspaper from the company headquarters at Wolfsburg, Volkswagen spokesperson Thomas Mickeoeit said, "We have nothing to do with Vashishta Wahan. Volkswagen is interested in setting up a plant in India and we are still weighing the options. No decision has been taken so far."

He said Schuster was "sacked" by the company on June 15 as he was involved in a "bribery scam." Volkswagen has filed a complaint, Mickeoeit said, with the public prosecutor in Brunswick on June 28.

An independent investigation by this website's newspaper shows that Vashishta Wahan was registered with the Registrar of Companies by Ashok Jain, who was once Volkswagen’s India representative.

Jain, however, later wrote to the ROC in January, saying that he was stepping down as promoter and director—the company is now in the name of Bhuwan Kumar Chaturvedi of Gurgaon and Jagdeesh Alaga Raja of Chennai.

Jain told this website's newspaper, "I am in no way attached with Vashishta Wahan now and have never been associated with the company ever. I have my own hotel and mining business and am being dragged into this controversy."

Asked about the letter signed by him as in the registration records, he said, "Have you seen my photograph? There might be a million Ashok Jains."

He, however, confirmed his Schuster connection. "Yes, I have travelled to Andhra Pradesh with Schuster on a number of occasions in the past as I was working for Volkswagen as the chief advisor in India. However, my association with Volkswagen ended last year."

Mickeoeit, however, told this website's newspaper that Jain’s services were terminated in 2003.

At Vashishta Wahan’s registered address, the basement shop in Community Centre Market, R P Singh, Manager (Accounts) of Vinod Dua and Associates, says the company is one of their clients.

"When a company is registered, a lot of things have to be looked into. Vashishta Wahan is our client and our job was to render our professional expertise for getting the company registered."

Asked about the registered address, he said, "This is quite a common practice. When this company was formed, they did not have a place which is why this was made the registered address. The company was registered with an authorised capital of Rs 5 crore and the initial subscriber capital of Rs 1 lakh was equally shared by Bhuwan Kumar Chaturvedi of Gurgaon and Jagdeesh Alaga Raja of Chennai."

Singh directed this website's newspaper to the "administrative office" in Vasant Kunj, a south Delhi residential colony, which he said was Jain’s residence as well.

The proprietor of the Vasant Kunj office, Ravi Chand, said he did not have anything to do with Vashishta Wahan. "I am Jain’s lawyer and handle cases pertaining to his hotel business. This is my office," he said.

Raja was not available at his Chennai office. Chaturvedi said that he was just a technical director and had nothing to do with the "financial aspects" of the company. "I would have been involved had the plant been set up," he said.

we are not unworthy, no. but its pretty similar with other countries too. but its of a different nature and varied scale. in india, its the level to which its permeated across all levels of the administrative machinery that is unsettling.

but yes..."vashishta wahan" is just a bit too much.

Corruption is there everywhere. Remember Enron? It is pretty rampant in India and is very deep-rooted.

Remember, it takes two hands to clap !

rl: rl: WHAT SUCKERS!! Did they actually believe that a Vahishta Whatsthename is VolksWagen? If they did, they deserve to lose those 11 crores. If I strike a deal with a Mr. Aditya Shah, am I going to give a cheque to the next Aditya Shah that walks into my office. Lets float a company : Gaadi Mahan India and get some GM (General Motors) letterheads printed. Voila! Easiest 11 crores ever.

But I agree with Ajmat. Corrupted officials have profited.

GTO

Well, it looks like they WANTED to lose those 11 crores belonging to the people of AP to themselves.

Dude, register a company thats not yet in India. I'll sign on as one of the directors and arrange for the swiss/jersey island/bahamas bank account...lets start with Bharat Maal Wahan before the other Germans get here.
lol:

PS: Does Vashishta Wahan mean 'Special Vehicle' in any language? It is, after all, a Special Purpose Vehicle so you cant claim that it has no automotive links.

DOUBLE rl: rl: !! Enough, Enough - This is going to kill me

GTO

VW... WELCOME TO INDIA..... lol!!!

In Malayalam 'wahichu' (slang) means siphoned off...so there might be similar meanings in all south languages too, perhaps..

Well, you cant say the desi VW guys had no sense of humour, unlike the germans...

Yo Dude - I'm Mal too...I got that.

http://www.newindpress.com/Newsitems...adesh&Topic=0&

Wednesday July 13 2005 00:00 IST
HYDERABAD: It is now official. Andhra Pradesh Industries Minister Botsa Satyanarayana on Tuesday admitted that the state government has paid Rs 11 crore to the Delhi-based ‘Vasishta Wahan’, purported to be an agency of German automobile giant Volkswagen, even as he laboured hard to wriggle himself out of the controversy saying there was nothing hanky-panky in the entire transaction.

"Vasisht Wahan is an Indian arm of Volkswagen and the state government's equity has been paid on the directions of the German firm," he averred at a media conference on his return from a foreign trip, feigning ignorance about the persons owning Vasisht Wahan.

Questions have been raised about the payment with the German car major firing its official, Helmuth Schuster, who negotiated with the AP government.

Schuster was charged with bribery and fraud by the company in regard to certain deals he handled.

There were also reports that Volkswagen has nothing to do with Vashista Wahan and that it was floated by persons closely associated with the minister. Ashok Jain, in whose name Vashisth Wahan has been registered, has not been available for quite sometime.

Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, who addressed a separate press conference, dismissed the entire issue saying: "We are dealing with a big company like Volkswagen and heavens are not going to fall if the money has been paid."

The minister took pains to convince that there was nothing wrong in making the payment to Vasisht Wahan as Volkswagen claimed to have 51 equity in it. He, however, failed to explain how the money was transferred without verifying the credentials of the Indian partners of Vasishta Wahan.

According to Satyanarayana, Volkswagen's India operations chief Helmuth Schuster wrote a letter to the state government on Janunary 7 this year asking it pay its equity to Vasisht Wahan. In less than a week, on January 13, the money was transferred.

"We verified with the German embassy and also confirmed from Volkswagen that it has authorised Vasisht Wahan to execute its proposed Indian unit at Visakhapatnam," the Minister claimed.

Grilled further about Vasisht Wahan's credentials and the persons on its Board, the minister said: "I am not bothered about the agent as I am dealing with Volkswagen itself". Pointed out that Volkswagen had disowned Vasistha Wahan, the minister said he was unaware of it.

He also failed to explain why there was no mention about Vasisht Wahan in Volkswagen's letters after June 15, the day Schuster resigned.

"The state government had been dealing with Schuster since 2003. Now that he resigned from Volkswagen and is being investigated by German agencies for fraud and breach of trust, we have decided to send a high-level delegation led by the Industries Commissioner to Volkswagen to review what all had happened," the Minister explained.

He pointed that the previous Telugu Desam government too handled the project through Schuster and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu had even hosted a lunch to the German company official.

All through the media conference, Satanarayana looked agitated. Initially, he offered to distribute copies of the communication between Volkswagen and the state government but later retracted on the ground that such a move would "hurt Volkswagen".

Could also be that few ministers of AP governement are partners of this desi VW company to make quick money..

So within a couple of weeks from now a "high-level delegation" will be touring Deutschland....

After that expect another "high-level" team chasing Schuster , the fugitive former VW executive all over EU?

Or will the VW engineers use the "high-level delegates" as crash-test dummies?

Every bugger must have got the cut from the deal, including the CM.
People of AP were the ultimate losers. If i were volkswagon i would avoid AP for a factory. Perhaps put it up near haryana/chennai/bangalore like the rest of the guys. Say goodbye to volkswagon vehicles for atleast another 4-5 years.

AP for VW! What are they looking for there?