NewsClick Case: Delhi Police seeks details from US govt on 5 firms linked to Neville Roy Singham
A source in the EOW told The Indian Express that they have sent LRs to the US for details on financial transactions from M/S Worldwide Media Holdings LLC, USA, Support Foundation, Justice and Education Fund, M/S GSPAN LLC, The Tricontinental Ltd to M/s. PPK NewsClick Studio Pvt. Ltd.
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American businessman Neville Roy Singham. (Twitter/@thoughtworks) The Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing has sent letters rogatory (LR) to US authorities, asking them to provide “certain financial” details of five entities linked to US-based businessman Neville Roy Singham as online news portal NewsClick had received foreign direct investment of Rs 77 crore from them.
Investigations by the Enforcement Directorate, which raided NewsClick premises in February 2021, had revealed foreign remittances allegedly totalling over Rs 77 crore were received by the portal between 2018 and 2021.
The remittances had come from companies such as Worldwide Media Holdings LLC, Delaware; Justice & Education Fund Inc; Tricontinental Ltd Inc, USA; G Span LLC, USA; and Centro Popular Demidas of Brazil. The ED has claimed these companies are linked to Singham, who it says, is “a contact person of CPC (Communist Party of China), China”.
On August 26, 2020, the EOW lodged an FIR under IPC Sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating) and 120B (criminal conspiracy). It said that “M/s. PPK NewsClick Studio Pvt. Ltd”, had received foreign direct investment of Rs 9.59 crore from M/s.Worldwide Media Holdings LLC, USA, during the financial year 2018-19 which was made by “greatly overvaluing the shares of the company to avoid the alleged cap of 26% FDI in a digital news website”.
Among various things, the FIR said that the petitioner company, which owns the digital portal, had violated “FDI and other laws of the country and caused a loss to the exchequer”.
A source in the EOW told The Indian Express that they have sent LRs to the US for details on financial transactions from M/S Worldwide Media Holdings LLC, USA, Support Foundation, Justice and Education Fund, M/S GSPAN LLC, The Tricontinental Ltd to M/s. PPK NewsClick Studio Pvt. Ltd.
“In LR sent last month, the investigation officer has asked specific questions, including about the investors of the companies and their source,” a source said.
Another source said that the investigation team showed their questions to their seniors at Delhi Police headquarters and legal experts before sending the LR.
“So far, the investigation team has found that a company M/s Worldwide Media Holding LLC, USA was incorporated by Jason Pfetcher, a close associate of Singham with 100% equity of People Support Foundation (Jodie Evans, wife of Singham is a director) in November, 2017. They have received a reply from Pfetcher through emails,” the source said.
Seeking to quash an FIR registered by the EOW, NewsClick had on November 7 told the Delhi High Court that the entire case was malafide. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the company, had argued before a single-judge bench of Justice Saurabh Banerjee.
“What is the loss to the government exchequer here? I have brought in the money. I have paid salaries; these are all banking transactions and not non-banking. How is an offence under Sections 420 and 406 (IPC) made out? Who have I cheated and what is the breach of trust? The investor has given the money, but he has not filed any complaint. Nobody has said there is a breach of trust… It is a commercial transaction. Has the GOI given me any money which I have siphoned off? This is nothing but pure malafide,” Sibal had said.
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