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Getting new teeth: Indian Express
New Delhi, Sept 21: Ever since the demise of FERA, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has been chafing at the inadequacy of its powers. The mandate to administer the Prevention of Money Laundering Act will however give it back some of its lost teeth and track down cases such as those of Dinesh Dalmia`s DSQ Software.
New Delhi, Sept 21: Ever since the demise of FERA, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has been chafing at the inadequacy of its powers. The mandate to administer the Prevention of Money Laundering Act will however give it back some of its lost teeth and track down cases such as those of Dinesh Dalmia’s DSQ Software.
DSQ has been served with several show cause notices in connection with Dalmia’s Mauritius-based Overseas Corporate Bodies (OCBs) under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), but the ED has also begun a fresh investigation into possible forex violations in connection with his acquisition of an American call centre company called Aegis Communications (reported by The Indian Express paper last week). In particular, the ED wants to investigate a Post Office Box in Tortola, British Virgin Islands, linked to several of Dalmia’s overseas business activities.
DALMIA’S US shenanigans are being unravelled this time in a series of articles by NY Post columnist Christopher Byron. In his latest column, Byron says that the auditors of Dalmia’s UK-based company bulked up their balance sheet by 16,000 per cent by claiming to have bought DSQ Software’s Texas-based, US operations for $10 million.
Byron, however, discovered that payment for the acquisition that was made through a London company never found its way to DSQ India as it ought to have. And the Texas subsidiary continues to be shown in the Indian balance sheet. Dalmia, it would seem, also acquired Aegis Communications out of the P.O. Box account in Tortola.
DALMIA’S US shenanigans are being unravelled this time in a series of articles by NY Post columnist Christopher Byron. In his latest column, Byron says that the auditors of Dalmia’s UK-based company bulked up their balance sheet by 16,000 per cent by claiming to have bought DSQ Software’s Texas-based, US operations for $10 million.
Byron, however, discovered that payment for the acquisition that was made through a London company never found its way to DSQ India as it ought to have. And the Texas subsidiary continues to be shown in the Indian balance sheet. Dalmia, it would seem, also acquired Aegis Communications out of the P.O. Box account in Tortola.
The irony is that with DSQ Software’s high profile board having quit and its institutional shareholders reluctant to ask any questions, we have an excellent example of the redundancy of Sebi’s elaborate good governance codes. Sebi has been curiously inactive in the DSQ case.
The stock exchanges that list the DSQ Software stock can do little more than demand perfunctory compliance with Clause 49 of the Listing Agreement since they have no powers to verify the information or lack of it. Unless the Department of Company Affairs (DCA) investigates the DSQ group and its many operations and subsidiaries in India and abroad, DSQ will remain free to concoct explanations for every situation.