Count the Zeros

I hate to admit it but I'm very confused. In the first week of March, I think around the 8th I read an article in the newspapers that a Mr. Hassan Ali was being questioned and that a scam of 35000 crores was being investgated. It also mentioned that there was a whole slew of politicians involved.



On 9th or 10th, I read an artice which compared the 35000 crores against the fortunes of Azim Premji and the chairman of DLF. It seems our Hassan Ali was richer than both of them. The same day I read somewhere (I think Miday) that 6 politicians including a top Maharashtra politician who died last year was being investigated.

A couple of days later and Kirit Somiaya a BJP member narrowed it down to 2 Union ministers.

On the 16th I read a small cutting in one of todays papers which says that no politicians are involved. This is amazing, the story in a matter of 8-odd days has gone from front page banner screaming headlines to 3rd and 5th page news.

Not surprising considering the amounts at hand. Today, in I think the economic times it said that Hassan Ali voluntarily agreed to 8 out of his 10 accounts being frozen by the Swiss Authourities. why would he do that ? Would you willingly hand over accounts worth US$8bn (as per todays eco time) [ {1 bn= 1000Mn} { 1 Mn=0.1 Crore} {therfore amount being frozen is 8000 Mn of dollars or 35200 crores approx) ]


Let me summarize my reasons for geting confused :


1) Where and how many phone calls have whizzed back and forward, how many arms were twisted, favours called in, to make the scale of politicans involved go from a slew to none.

2) Why did Hassan Ali agree to freezing of the 8 accounts so quickly? Would you have handed over this much so quickly ? Did he have anything much worse in the other 2 or more he hasnt agreed to hand over ?

(The CBI would have had a devil of a time if he hadn't agreed to it voluntarily since the Swiss are very shirty about freezing accounts so quickly)

3) How is it that a man who hasnt filed a return from 1999 and is found to have so many assets and at no point till now did he trip over the 1 X 6 famous scheme for PAN cards ? He had a car, he had a house, pretty sure he had a credit card.

What is it the FM said post budget - The Bank withdrawl transaction tax (infamous BTT) is working beautifully , did it help you catch Mr. Hassan Ali dear FM ?

4) How many politicians and personalities stayed at his house in Pune and its seperate floor for guests ?


5) Its said that hawala operators charge 0.5% so even if we conclude that the amount in the banks is his full extent of trading, he has earned 17.5 crore on this amount alone. [ compare what you have in your bank today Vs your turnover last year and you will get an idea of approx what this man has earned]

6) The income tax has asked Mr. Hassan Ali to file a block return for the last 8 years. Isnt that a small slap on the wrist since once he files that he can walk away scott free, whereas if one of us is caught fiddling our business books, the FM now says we must be punished under money laundering act and be treated equal to drug pushers.

7) How is it that a person who has paid no taxes since the last 8 years can declare that he has 7 cars including a Bentley and watches totalling 20 lakhs and still smile ear to ear whereas Mr. Amitabh Bacchan got his life disected under a microscope when his friend gave his son a Bentley ( Lesson of life Mr. Bacchan - Next time dont piss off the first family)

8) Lastly what scares the hell out of me is if hes the main person behind the rerouting of funds via Mauritius etc, ino the stock markets and its now pulled out becuase hes in trouble a la Harshad Mehta / Ketan Parekh (lets say 35000 crores like the money detected for example) guess where our stock market is headed.

Lastly, on the 18th of March I read in the paper that Mr. Hassan Ali was not arrested since there is no provision to arrest him under the new FEMA law.
Oh yeah ! pull the other one please.