UNITY’s bid to rise again
After remaining quiet for almost a year, agents of Unity Life International (ULI)—a network marketing business that duped hundreds of thousands of people from across the country and outside—have become active of late.
For the last four days, they have been organising sit-ins before the central offices of three major parties—UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress and CPN (UML—demanding that the case against the company be scrapped.
On April 2, National Unity Group—a group of Unity agents—organised a rally in the Capital, demanding annulment of the case filed against ULI and guarantee their investment. The agents said they would stage a hunger strike if their demands are not met.
Interestingly, the rise in the activities of Unity agents has coincided with the change in the government. Instead of facing the law, kingpins of the multi-billion Unity scam are mobilising their agents in the streets to get lifted arrest warrants issued against them.
Unity Chairman Kashi Ram Gurung and Managing Director Bishnu Chhetri are on the run following the issuance of arrest warrants against them. The police have arrested some junior Unity officials and lodged cases against them.
According to agitating agents, ULI Managing Director Chhetri had also joined the rally on April 2. However, police denied the claim. “We had no information of his presence in the rally,” said Superintendent of Police Bikram Singh Thapa, chief of the Metropolitan Police Range, Lalitpur.
Amid accusations that political parties are protecting Unity kingpins, SP Thapa said they will arrest Gurung and Chhetri no matter what may come.
Nepali Congress (NC) leader Arjun Nar Singh KC on Thursday spoke at a programme organised by Unity agents at the Reporters’ Club, where he was ‘invited’ to speak on the peace and constitution writing processes. “Ordinary people’s investment should be safe,” said KC. “If the revival of Unity as per the legal process can guarantee their investment, I support the idea,” said KC.
His remark was welcomed by the agents with a huge applause. UCPN (Maoist) leader Dev Gurung was also expected to attend the programme, but he did not make it.
Unity agents are terming Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal and Maoist Chairman Puspa Kamal Dahal as ‘heroes’ in their programmes, reflecting their newfound confidence with the formation of the new government.
Although a probe committee formed by the finance ministry had recommended investigating Unity promoters on more than a dozen cases, the government has only filed a fraud case and a case under Bank and Financial Institution Act against them.
The police have filed fraud cases against 108 persons involved in Unity, including Gurung, Chhetri, General Manager Shishir Yogi, Finance Director Bhim Gurng, Information Technology Director Netra Rajbanshhi, Department Store Director Indra BK, immediate Manager of Madhyamanchal Gramen Bikas Bank Ram Dev Yadav and agents taking huge commissions. They have been charged with committing fraud of Rs 3.79 billion and deceiving 366,000 people.
A joint investigation team of the Department of Revenue Investigation (DRI), Nepal Rastra Bank and Insurance Board had submitted a detailed report on illegal activities of Unity to the government. The report had concluded that Unity violated the Bank and Financial Institutions Act, Insurance Act, Securities Act, Cooperatives Act, Foreign Exchange Act, Revenue Leakage (Control) Act and Consumer Rights Protection Act, among others.
The DRI, which had collected all the documents within two months after the government initiated action against Unity, has not made any progress in the case. New DRI Director General Shanta Bahadur Shrestha said he was going through the details . “We are also in a dilemma on whether to file a case on revenue leakage immediately, as the size of the tax evasion by Unity is yet to be ascertained,” said Shrestha.
Posted on: 2011-04-08 09:13
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