A US court has framed bribery charges against former chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy’s close aide and Congress MP KVP Ramachandra Rao (KVP) pertaining to a titanium mining project cleared in 2006. This comes on top of ten-odd charge sheets related to corruption filed last year by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against YSR’s son YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.
According to the United States Attorney’s office, the federal indictment, which was unsealed yesterday by Chicago court, listed 57 transfers of funds between various entities in various amounts totaling $10,597,050, beginning April 28, 2006, through July 13, 2010.
One of the charges levelled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the accused used US financial institutions for transmission of funds for the purpose of bribing Indian officials to obtain approval for the project.
Three months later, the two entities signed an agreement to form a JV under which APMDC had to sublease mining leases to Bothli AG for developing the mine as well as the titanium production project involving a total cost of Rs 4,500 crore ($ 1 billion).
The FBI named six people, including Dmitry Firtash, a Ukrainian businessman who controls Group DF that owns Bothli Trade AG, and Periyasamy Sunderalingam of Sri Lanka, who is an authorised signatory on behalf of Bothli Trade for the above agreement.
Sunderalingam allegedly met KVP, who was adviser to the state government then, to determine the total amount of bribes and identified various foreign bank accounts held in the names of nominees outside India that could be used to funnel bribes to him, according to the Attorney’s office.
“Rao allegedly solicited bribes for himself and others in return for approving licenses for the project and warned other defendants concerning the threat of a possible law enforcement investigation on the project,” it said.
KVP, however, termed these charges as baseless.
Under the agreement, Bothli Trade was allowed to use deposits in an extent of over 8,000 hectares across 120 km of coastal length in Visakhapatnam and Vizianagaram districts.
The project was supposed to produce 250,000-300,000 tonne titanium ore a year, including 20,000 tonne titanium sponge and ingots and 24,000 tonne coatings.
Project a non-starter
Though the project was to be implemented within three years from the date of sublease, nothing happened on the ground even though the Centre had granted in-principal approval.
“The Centre’s approval was not converted into a mining lease by the state government as the APMDC did not submit a mining plan for the same,” said a senior official in the mining department.
Subsequently, the state government headed by Kiran Kumar Reddy apparently cancelled the joint venture project as it had done with a few other projects cleared by YSR besides asking the officials to prepare a proposal for fresh joint venture plans to develop the project, according to government sources.
Some of these projects had already been probed by the CBI alleging quid pro quo benefits to Jagan. Incidentally, the CBI had recorded the statement of KVP pertaining to some of these controversial decisions, but this particular case never figured either in the FIR or in the subsequent charge sheets filed by it. KVP, it may be recalled, was accused by the vernacular media of playing a central role in the alleged irregularities committed by the YSR regime.
Several of these projects remained stuck following the death of YSR. In this particular case, the payouts apparently made towards the bribes had continued for full one year after YSR died in a helicopter crash in September 2, 2009. There are two other projects up and running in the state involving mining of titanium ore run by local companies.
Meanwhile, Lok Satta president Jayaprakash Narayan today asked the CBI to work closely with the FBI to unearth the alleged irregularities.
According to the United States Attorney’s office, the federal indictment, which was unsealed yesterday by Chicago court, listed 57 transfers of funds between various entities in various amounts totaling $10,597,050, beginning April 28, 2006, through July 13, 2010.
One of the charges levelled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the accused used US financial institutions for transmission of funds for the purpose of bribing Indian officials to obtain approval for the project.
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In April 2006, the state government signed an MoU with Swiss-based Bothli Trade AG to facilitate a titanium mining project along the AP coast in a joint venture with government-owned AP Mineral Development Corporation (APMDC) with the latter holding 26 per cent equity in the project towards allocation of natural resources and land.
Three months later, the two entities signed an agreement to form a JV under which APMDC had to sublease mining leases to Bothli AG for developing the mine as well as the titanium production project involving a total cost of Rs 4,500 crore ($ 1 billion).
The FBI named six people, including Dmitry Firtash, a Ukrainian businessman who controls Group DF that owns Bothli Trade AG, and Periyasamy Sunderalingam of Sri Lanka, who is an authorised signatory on behalf of Bothli Trade for the above agreement.
Sunderalingam allegedly met KVP, who was adviser to the state government then, to determine the total amount of bribes and identified various foreign bank accounts held in the names of nominees outside India that could be used to funnel bribes to him, according to the Attorney’s office.
“Rao allegedly solicited bribes for himself and others in return for approving licenses for the project and warned other defendants concerning the threat of a possible law enforcement investigation on the project,” it said.
KVP, however, termed these charges as baseless.
Under the agreement, Bothli Trade was allowed to use deposits in an extent of over 8,000 hectares across 120 km of coastal length in Visakhapatnam and Vizianagaram districts.
The project was supposed to produce 250,000-300,000 tonne titanium ore a year, including 20,000 tonne titanium sponge and ingots and 24,000 tonne coatings.
Project a non-starter
Though the project was to be implemented within three years from the date of sublease, nothing happened on the ground even though the Centre had granted in-principal approval.
“The Centre’s approval was not converted into a mining lease by the state government as the APMDC did not submit a mining plan for the same,” said a senior official in the mining department.
Subsequently, the state government headed by Kiran Kumar Reddy apparently cancelled the joint venture project as it had done with a few other projects cleared by YSR besides asking the officials to prepare a proposal for fresh joint venture plans to develop the project, according to government sources.
Some of these projects had already been probed by the CBI alleging quid pro quo benefits to Jagan. Incidentally, the CBI had recorded the statement of KVP pertaining to some of these controversial decisions, but this particular case never figured either in the FIR or in the subsequent charge sheets filed by it. KVP, it may be recalled, was accused by the vernacular media of playing a central role in the alleged irregularities committed by the YSR regime.
Several of these projects remained stuck following the death of YSR. In this particular case, the payouts apparently made towards the bribes had continued for full one year after YSR died in a helicopter crash in September 2, 2009. There are two other projects up and running in the state involving mining of titanium ore run by local companies.
Meanwhile, Lok Satta president Jayaprakash Narayan today asked the CBI to work closely with the FBI to unearth the alleged irregularities.