Indian-origin couple defrauds New Zealand govt of over USD 2 mn
Melbourne, May 20 (PTI): An Indian-origin couple has been found guilty of defrauding a government company for over USD 2 million in Christchurch in New Zealand.
On May 16, Amandeep Sharma pleaded guilty and will now be sentenced in June, the New Zealand Herald said.
Earlier in the month, his wife Neha Sharma was jailed for three years after pleading guilty to a series of charges including obtaining by deception, money laundering and using a forged document, the newspaper said.
The government company Oranga Tamariki made 103 payments to Amandeep's company, Divine Connection, between July 2021 and October 2022 against 326 invoices, newsportal thepress.co.nz said, adding, the total of these payments was just shy of USD 2.15 million.
The New Zealand Herald described in detail how the couple carried out the fraud and quoted Oranga Tamariki chief executive Andrew Bridgman as saying that as soon as concerns were raised by his company in November 2022, an internal investigation was undertaken and then the case was referred to the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) resulting in the prosecution.
Neha started a job as property manager at Oranga Tamariki in 2021 after forging written references from her previous job at the Ministry of Education in New Zealand. As part of her agreement, she had signed a code of conduct that included clauses to avoid conflicts of interest.
Yet, in her official capacity, she enlisted her husband Amandeep's construction company Divine Connection in the system to do jobs such as maintenance and upkeep of properties etc.
“Of the 203 jobs recorded as being assigned to Divine Connection in LogIT, 91 were created by Neha Sharma herself, 64 were created by the helpdesk and 20 were created by the friend. The remainder appeared to have been created by other Facilities Management Officer (FMO),” the New Zealand Herald said.
“No one knew about their marriage until after they’d conned the government agency out of more than USD 2 million,” the newspaper added.
Among the red flags were Amandeep's company was registered in the same address as Neha's residential address. When Oranga Tamariki started an internal investigation and confronted Neha, she quit her job. In no time, Amandeep's name was removed as director of the company, its address changed. Neha even joined another company.
When the SFO came raiding, the couple owned three properties and three cars; they also had about USD 8,00,000 in cash in their joint bank accounts.
“Less than two weeks after the SFO knocked on their front door, the couple booked two one-way tickets flying business class on Singapore Airlines to Chennai, India. The trip seemed strange since the couple had a busy schedule ahead in Christchurch, including pregnancy,” the newspaper said.
“The couple boarded their flight on April 14, with 80 kgs of luggage between them and before leaving, they attempted to liquidate their properties and cars and transferred just under USD 8,00,000 in cash from their bank accounts to accounts held in India,” the newspaper said, adding, the SFO investigation revealed that the concealed funds were transferred from Amandeep‘s Bank of India account to seven other bank accounts based in India.
The High Court in Christchurch also made restraining orders in relation to the properties and sale proceeds.
Quoting SFO director Karen Chang, thepress.co.nz said: “We would like to acknowledge the police and Indian authorities for their swift action and assistance in securing the defendant’s assets.”
On Friday, Neha's lawyer said that she blamed the offending on baby brain, the Crown said, there was no evidence of remorse or offer of reparation.
She is now in prison with her baby while the couple's older child is back in India with Amandeep's sister.
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Actress sexual assault: Court says Prosecution 'miserably' failed to prove conspiracy against Dileep
Kochi (PTI): The prosecution had "miserably" failed to prove the conspiracy charge against Dileep in the sensational 2017 actress sexual assault case, a local court has observed while citing inconsistencies and lack of sufficient evidence against the Malayalam star.
The full judgement of Ernakulam District and Principal Sessions Court Judge Honey M Varghese was released late on Friday, and has revealed the judge also pointing out at unsustainable arguments put forth by the prosecution.
"The prosecution miserably failed to prove the conspiracy between accused No.1 (Pulsar Suni) and accused No.8 (Dileep) in executing the offence against the victim," the court held.
It examined in detail, the prosecution's allegation that Dileep had hired the prime accused to sexually assault the survivor and record visuals, including close-up footage of a gold ring she was wearing, to establish her identity.
On page 1130 of the judgment, under paragraph 703, the court framed the issue as whether the prosecution's contention that NS Sunil (Pulsar Suni) recorded visuals of the gold ring worn by the victim at the time of the occurrence, so as to clearly disclose her identity, was sustainable.
The prosecution contended Dileep and Suni had planned the recording so that the actress' identity would be unmistakable, with the video of the gold ring intended to convince Dileep that the visuals were genuine.
However, the court noted that this contention was not stated in the first charge sheet and was introduced only in the second one.
As part of this claim, a gold ring was seized after the victim produced it before the police.
The court observed that multiple statements of the victim were recorded from February 18, 2017, following the incident, and that she first raised allegations against Dileep only on June 3, 2017.
Even on that day, nothing was mentioned about filming of the ring as claimed by the prosecution, the court said.
The prosecution failed to explain why the victim did not disclose this fact at the earliest available opportunities.
It further noted that although the victim had viewed the sexual assault visuals twice, she did not mention any specific recording of the gold ring on those occasions, which remained unexplained.
The court also examined the approvers' statements.
One approver told the magistrate that Dileep had instructed Pulsar Suni to record the victim's wedding ring.
The court observed that no such wedding ring was available with her at that time.
During the trial, the approver changed his version, the court said.
The Special Public Prosecutor put a leading question to the approver on whether Dileep had instructed the recording of the ring, after which he deposed that the instruction was to record it to prove the victim's identity.
The court observed that the approver changed his account to corroborate the victim's evidence.
When the same question was put to another approver, he repeated the claim during the trial but admitted he had never stated this fact before the investigating officer.
The court noted that the second approver even went to the extent of claiming Dileep had instructed the execution of the crime as the victim's engagement was over.
This showed that the evidence of the second approver regarding the shooting of the ring was untrue, as her engagement had taken place after the crime.
The court further observed that the visuals themselves clearly revealed the victim's identity and that there was no need to capture images of the ring to establish identity.
In paragraph 887, the court examined the alleged motive behind the crime and noted that in the first charge sheet, the prosecution had claimed that accused persons 1 to 6 had kidnapped the victim with the common intention of capturing nude visuals to extort money by threatening to circulate them and there was no mention about Dileep's role in it.
The court also rejected the prosecution's claim that the accused had been planning the assault on Dileep's instructions since 2013, noting that the allegation was not supported by reliable evidence.
It similarly ruled out the claim that Suni attempted to sexually assault the victim in Goa in January 2017, stating that witness statements showed no such misconduct when he served as the driver of the vehicle used by the actress there.
The court also discussed various controversies that followed Dileep's arrest and the evidence relied upon by the prosecution, ultimately finding that the case had not been proved.
Pronouning its verdict on the sensational case on December 8, the court acquitted Dileep and three others.
Later, the court sentenced six accused, including the prime accused Suni, to 20 years' rigorous imprisonment.
The assault on the multilingual actress, after the accused allegedly forced their way into her car and held it under their control for two hours on February 17, 2017, had shocked Kerala.
Pulsar Suni sexually assaulted the actress and video recorded the act with the help of the other convicted persons in the moving car.
