Indian facing $44mn corruption trial in British tax haven

LONDON/NEW DELHI - A non-resident Indian is fighting multi-million dollar money-laundering charges in Britain’s semi-autonomous island of Jersey in a complex case spanning three continents over the allegedly ill-gotten wealth of a late Nigerian military dictator.

Raj Arjandas Bhojwani, an Indian citizen, could be sent to prison for up to 14 years if found guilty at the end of his trial Monday in Jersey, a tax haven with its own laws and courts off the British mainland.

Bhojwani, who is based in London, Mumbai and Lagos, has been charged by Jersey authorities of laundering around $44 million through the Bank of India branch on the island - an account that has now been frozen.

He is said to have made the money from the sale of Tata trucks to the former Nigerian regime headed by the late military dictator Gen Sani Abacha in 1996-97.

The Jersey court has also heard allegations against Abacha and the current Nigerian high commissioner to South Africa, Colonel Mohammed Buba Marwa, who was military administrator of Lagos state and close to Abacha.

Bhojwani, a 52-year-old businessman, was arrested in February 2007 while trying to catch a flight to the US, reportedly for medical treatment. He is allowed to move about within Jersey after furnishing a record bail of $65mn.

Now, Bhojwani’s family are crying foul, saying the case against him was flawed from the very start and that it needs the urgent intervention of the Indian government with British authorities to ensure a fair trial.

The problem, says Bhojwani’s daughter Jayshree, is that Jersey’s legal system and courts are opaque and do not fall under British jurisdiction, although the island is a Crown dependency. The problem is compounded by the absence of a relevant treaty between Jersey and India.

My father is an Indian citizen, and all we are asking for is a fair trial. Right now, he is not receiving a fair trial and it is something that the Indian government should take up with the British government on behalf of an Indian citizen, Jayshree told IANS on phone from Jersey Friday.

The Indian government can probably help stay the case. Indians and Chinese have major investments in Jersey and the procedure taken against my father can happen against anybody, she said.

Jayshree Bhojwani offers several grounds to reinforce her claim that the Jersey trial is unfair.

First, she says, the verdict on an appeal for a judicial review of the case filed by Bhojwani has been left pending, even though it has the support of the current civilian government of Nigeria, which has declared the Jersey trial illegal and unconstitutional.

Second, she accuses Jersey authorities of acting unconstitutionally in turning down a request by the Nigerian government for the return of all evidence - some 10,000 documents - taken from Nigeria without the knowledge of the Nigerians.

The Attorney General of Jersey does not have the authority to turn down the Nigerian Attorney General’s request to return the evidence. Only the Chief Minister of Jersey has this right, as it has political implications and therefore has to do with international affairs, Jayshree said.

Under Jersey’s 2005 anti-money laundering legislation, everybody on the island has an indirect obligation to inform the police where they have knowledge or suspicion of money laundering.

But Jayshree accuses the island’s authorities of taking retrospective action against her father for deals that were concluded in 1996-97, a move she says has implications for future inward investments in Jersey.

Raj Bhojwani last week received the support of former law minister Ram Jethmalani, who has demanded that Bhojwani be given the right to choose his own lawyers - under Jersey laws he can only hire a Jersey lawyer - and urged the New Delhi to dispatch a special task force to the tax haven to oversee the proceedings of the trial.