A look inside The Fakeer's Jhola : Part I
Now that Bond Numbers are out let us look into how political parties benefited from the scam and to pick which cases to look first, let's search by the biggest benefactors of the Scam BJP first. After all, Electoral Bonds came into being when BJP was in power and more specifically Narendra Modi was the Prime Minister of India. Late Arun Jaitley, who was Modi's first choice for the post of Finance Minister, as a Finance Minister introduced this immoral, unconstitutional and corrupt scheme and posed it as a measure of transparency and stupid Indian Media kept silent about it. I had called this Election Bond scheme, "An instrument of Fraud, bribery and immeasurable stupidity" and only now Supreme Court has concurred with me.
Now which company to pick first amongst Modi's benefactors first, I thought I would start with A first. Although through their subsidiaries and shell companies other companies will get discussed and through their overall donation patterns other companies, who might be BJP's partners or Competitors in the political arena will be discussed. I picked APL healthcare, a company which looks like a subsidiary of of Aurobindo Pharma Limited.
Since this will be a detailed post and if you get disenchanted by the details at any point, please at least scroll down to the conclusion section where I discuss what these scams
mean for common people and the economy as a whole.
So let me dive into self declared "Fakeer" (Poor devout person who is not interested in material world) or Supreme leader of ruling BJP's PM Modi's "Jhola" ( A poor person's bag, a Matilda)
Curious Case of APL Healthcare and Aurobindo Pharma : Debt ridden and still giving Electoral Bonds without reducing its debt first.
I thought I knew about Aurobindo Pharma group, A Hyderabad based Major Pharmaceutical company, who is listed in Bombay and National Stock Exchanges in India. Aurobindo is also part of S&P BSE 200 Index; Which was pretty big as I thought. (Source:https://www.bseindia.com/stock-share-price/aurobindo-pharma-ltd/auropharma/524804/)
But a closer look sent shivers to my spine .. BSE reported that they had a turnover of 2.04 crore and market capital of 59,777 crore.
Out of which at least 28,698 crore is from Free Float Shares (which excludes Promoter shares, Pledged Shares, Locked in shares etc from the full capitalization value).
Let's recap, Total declared turnover is only 2 crores and stupid stock market experts fueled its valuation 30,000 times.
At this point, let me remind you that Aurobindo Pharma settled Insider trading case with SEBI (Indian Stock market regulator) just a few years back by paying fine or compensation or one may call it open bribe of 22 crore. SEBI just called this amount as Penalty, if retail investors lost money SEBI doesn't care.. "They should know the risks" is SEBI's motto.
This meant there must be pledged shares, so I went to Zuabacorp
And I found that this company , Aurobindo Pharma, alone had over 40 borrowing charges against it and among those 2 charges are not yet closed. From Rabobank of Netherlands to IFCI Limited.. various bankers held charges against it..
Although financial market rumour spreader in chief MoneyControl claimed "Aurobindo Pharma likely to become Debt free in FY'22", borrowing related charges remain open against Aurobindo Pharma. The total charge value of the stressed borrowing at time totalled at Rs. 64,025,437,500 that is 6402 crores.
Most interesting borrowing data that I found was a charge held by State Bank of India. A charge that began in the year of 1997 has been Modified recently.
- Borrowing/ Charge is valued at 2000,00,00,000 ie. 2000 crores or 20 billion rupees.
- Last modification date is 22/02/2023 ... which is deep into their Electoral Bond splurge season.
So SBI has been helping Aurobindo Pharma (APL) to restructure its debt, by possibly lending them more money or time to settle other debts.
It is also interesting to note that RaboBank or COOPERATIVE CENTRALE RAIFFEISEN-BOERENLEENBANK B.A. doesn't give loans in Rupees, so that must have been in Dollars or Euro. So there must be APL branches in Western countries as well and at Opencorporate.com we find 47 companies of which 31 are currently active.
Since Aurobindo is a unique Bengali spelling of an Indian Name (made famous by Indian Freedom fighter, Aurobindo Ghosh), most other places it will be spelled as Aravinder, Arvind, Arvindram etc. So it is quite natural to deduce that these are Branches or Shell companies of Aurobindo Pharma Limited.
In their website, Aurobindo Pharma admits having subsidiaries across the globe and among them we find this APL (Malta) entity.
But here comes trouble for Aurobindo Pharma, In Paradise Papers, ICIJ had exposed a shell company named Aurobindo Pharma (Malta) Limited. (SOURCE: https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/nodes/55036046) Malta being a tax haven, many scrupulous businesses use a shell company to get a foothold in EU..
It is quite natural that these two entities are one and the same. The operations and profits from Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Poland, Bulgaria, France and other EU countries are channelled via this entity for possible tax evasion activities. Thanks to Brexit, UK outfit of APL is now considered a branch of Aurobindo Pharma in India. Officially the EU representative office is in Belgium, but no other EU outfit claims to be a branch of that Belgian entity.
Similarly, There is a Aurobindo Pharma in Delaware, US (USA's very own tax haven) and all other APL subsidiaries in US from NJ to Washington DC are branches of Delaware outfit.
This is a stereotypical footprint of a traditional tax evading company, globally. Thanks to local laws in Malta and Delaware, it becomes impossible to get financial data from these entities and say for certain, whether they are evading taxes, hiding profits in shell companies. But the index of suspicious activities points very high.
Although Income Tax authorities and Enforcement Directorate are supposed to investigate and uproot the evils of money laundering and tax evasion.. they did not investigate a single such company for having shell companies in tax havens. They are busy making fraudulent and trumped up cases against political opponents of ruling party.
AUROBINDO Pharma's Legal woes and Electoral Bond donations:
No I'm not talking about "Aurobindo Pharma slapped with Form 483 as FDA inspectors cite 6 findings" report.
Or "3rd Circuit revives trade-secret claims against Aurobindo" report of 2021.
Or the lawsuit by Pfizer..
Or this latest "Generics Drugmaker Aurobindo Cuts Production Over Safety Problems" report.
I'm talking about their link with Liquor manufacturer "PERNOD RICARD " and arrest of their Director in a trumped up and dubious case about "Delhi's Liquor Policy" ..
According to this report and I quote "An Indian court on Thursday sent an executive of spirits giant Pernod Ricard's (PERP.PA), opens new tab country unit and a director of local drugmaker Aurobindo Pharma Ltd (ARBN.NS), opens new tab to custody for a week in a probe related to the Delhi city government's liquor policy.
The court's decision came hours after P. Sarath Chandra Reddy of Aurobindo Pharma and Pernod Ricard's Benoy Babu were arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the country's federal financial crime-fighting agency."
So ED did not arrest them for having shell companies in Tax havens but for a politically motivated case against AAP, a political party that is a major part of Opposition coalition against Modi and ruling BJP.
So let's look at P. Sarath Chandra Reddy's Corporate profile:
Once again Zuabacorp lists that he is partner or Director in these companies:
PRR ENTERPRISES LLP
AUROBINDO PHARMA LTD
PVR CHEMPHAR PRIVATE LIMITED
CUREPRO PARENTERALS LIMITED
AURYN LABS LIMITED
TRIDENT LIFE SCIENCES LIMITED (amalgamated into Trident Chemphar Limited)
APL HEALTHCARE LIMITED
SHREAS INDUSTRIES LIMITED
ROSA AVENUES INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED
AXIS CLINICALS INDIA LIMITED
AURONEXT PHARMA PRIVATE LIMITED
AUROBINDO PHARMA FOUNDATION
And from news reports we find that Aurobindo Pharma is launching EUGIA PHARMA SPECIALITIES LIMITED's IPO.
So the Electoral Bond purchases of these following companies can be linked with Aurobindo Pharma group:
AUROBINDO PHARMA LTD, APL HEALTHCARE LIMITED , PHARMA SPECIALITIES LIMITED and also AXIS CLINICALS INDIA LIMITED and Trident Chemphar Limited.
The Chronology and The "Quid Pro Quo" are both really clear now:
Phase 1:
Aurobindo Pharma is facing legal heat from US, both in terms of lawsuits from other US Pharma companies and from US FDA .
Those who need to know, know about Aurobindo's shell companies and since exporting generic drugs form a bulk of their profits, they are quite vulnerable to money laundering and tax evasion charges, irrespective of whether they did these irregularities or not.
Their Debt restructuring practices made them quite vulnerable the SBI and it's defacto owner, current Government of India.
Phase 2 - Electoral Bond purchases:
3rd April 2021: Aurobindo Pharma buys 7 Electoral Bonds, 2 of 1 crore each (OC-6976, OC-6978) and 5 bonds of 10 lakh each (TL-7543, TL-7545, TL-7547, TL-7549, TL-7551) and on 7th April, regional Telegu Desham Party encashed them.
5th January 2022: Aurobindo Pharma buys 2 bonds of 1 crore each (OC-9521 ,OC-9522 )and 10 Electoral bonds of 10 lakh each (TL-7558 to TL-7567) and BJP encashes them on 12th Jan 2022. This is the first contact and Finance trail linking BJP with APL. You can find them on page 234 and 235 of latest bond redemption PDF.
8th April 2022: AUROBINDO PHARMA bought 15 Electoral Bonds of 1 Crore each and AXIS CLINICALS LIMITED buys 5 bonds of 1 Crore each, 12th April then ruling TRS or Bharat Rashtra Samithi encashed them.
2nd July 2022: Aurobindo Pharma buys 1 bond of 1 crore (OC-12081) and 5 Electoral bonds of 10 lakh each (TL-7593, TL-7595,TL-7597,TL-7597 and TL-7301) and BJP encashes them on 12th July 22022. This Encashment is exactly 6 month after the first BJP Encashment. You can find them on page 302 of latest bond redemption PDF.
6th July 2022: Trident Chemphar Limited buys 5 bonds of 1 crore each. But on 11th July, a regional party of Aurobindo's home states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, Telegu Desham Party encashed them.
ARREST OF AUROBINDO Director, P. Sarath Chandra Reddy in November.
10th November ED arrested him and court sends him to ED Custody. Aurobindo Pharma shares fell 11% that day, according to Reuters report.
15th Nov 2022: Aurobindo Pharma buys 5 electoral bonds of 1 crore each (OC-12374, OC-12376, OC-12378, OC-12380 and OC-12382) and ruling BJP encashed them on 21st November. You can find these details on page number 347 of bond redemption PDF.
22nd February, 2023: Government controlled State Bank of India (SBI) allows further time, by modifying the charge date of 2000 crore of charges. No assets or share pledging data is released either by SBI or APL.
29 May to 2nd June: BJP controlled Enforcement Directorate allows Aurobindo Pharma Director to turn approver and gives him full pardon:
I'm quoting a Media report in Verbatim,
"A Delhi court on Thursday allowed Chandra Reddy of Aurobindo Pharma, alleged to be one of the kingpins in the Delhi excise policy scam by the ED, to turn an approver following an application moved by him. Chandra Reddy, through his counsel, had moved the application before Special Judge MK Nagpal in the Rouse Avenue Court requesting permission to let him turn an approver.
The court on Thursday announced that his request has been considered and he has also been granted pardon vide an order dated May 29. Chandra Reddy’s name appeared in the second prosecution complaint or chargesheet filed by the ED in the Delhi Excise scam case on January 6, 2023. "
If this is not Quid Pro Quo, then what is?
As you can see, Aurobindo Pharma share value has doubled since their cozying up with ruling BJP.
On 8th November, 2023 Aurobindo Pharma purchased 50 Electoral Bonds of 1 crore each through 3 companies APL HEALTHCARE, AUROBINDO PHARMA LIMITED and EUGIA PHARMA SPECIALITY LIMITED.. I post the screenshot from Bond purchase PDF (page number 345 and 346) showing Bond Numbers and OC prefix for One Crore bond.
On 17th November, 2023 .. BJP encashed all 50 bonds putting a cool 50 crore kickback into Fakeer's Jhola . Call it gratuity, call it bribe, call it ransom or blackmail .. but on first year anniversary of its director's arrest, Aurobindo Pharma group had to cough up 50 crore of "Donation" for BJP. I tracked these bond numbers one at a time to find every single one is listed as "Redeemed by Bharatiya Janta party" on Page number 505-506 of Bond redemption PDF. (Checked via Excel also)
CONCLUSION: The collusion between ED, BJP and garnering money via Electoral Bond is clear now.
APL group is either colluding with BJP as well or they are entrapped by ED to say whatever BJP wants them to say and pay whatever BJP wants them to pay. ED will not investigate shell companies of APL. I have reasons to believe that APL is present via shell companies in various tiny Caribbean countries which are practically a tax haven.
When Financial watchdog ED looks after ruling party, BJP's political interest, who will look after Nation's interests?
When life saving drug making Pharma company venture in life damaging Alcohol business, pays ruling Political party kickbacks and bribes via Electoral Bonds, who will protect "healthcare systems" of the country?
When public sector banks like SBI helps badly performing companies to get loans and annually ask the government of India to recapitalize them, who will safeguard Indians from a lopsided and frailing economy?
When Gross Government Debt will cross 100% of GDP, IMF and World Bank will stop doling out fresh loans? How will Government recapitalize banks then?
Turning Businesses into BJP's puppets won't help one single bit then. Jhola carrying Fakeer's sermons on Godi Media ie Indian Media, won't help to fight the real hyper Inflation which will onset in 1 years time.
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