Latest news with #HarshvardhanJain
Time of India
17 hours ago
- Business
- Time of India
‘Baron of Westarctica' opened cos in leading Indian businessmen's names?
1 2 Ghaziabad: A city court on Monday granted police five days' remand of Harshvardhan Jain, who ran a fake embassy from a Kavi Nagar bungalow that claimed to represent unrecognised 'micronations' like Westarctica, Ladonia and Seborga till he was arrested last week by UP's special task force (STF). The 49-year-old Harshvardhan Jain also drove around in cars with fake diplomatic blue number plates that had 'Honorary Consul Baron Westarctica' and 'Honorary Consigliere Principato Di Seborga' engraved on them. The STF believes the embassy, which was in operation for nine years, was a facade for a suspected hawala business that Jain ran using shell companies and had sought his custody to interrogate him. You Can Also Check: Noida AQI | Weather in Noida | Bank Holidays in Noida | Public Holidays in Noida Chief judicial magistrate Aishwarya Pratap Singh was convinced that the matter was a complex one and thorough interrogation of the accused was important for the recovery of forged documents and to throw light on the connections he claims to enjoy in govt ranks. Jain was arrested by STF on July 23 from the rented two-storey Kavinagar bungalow. Talking to TOI, assistant prosecution officer Uttam Tripathy said had obtained a list of 25 companies from various diaries of Jain, which need to be verified. He cited the STF FIR to argue that Jain floated companies in the name of Dhirubhai Ambani, (Gautam) Adani and Mittal (which one was not specified), and the police recovered seals and stamps of those companies from him. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Passive Income Ideas Sitting at Home Mone Undo "We wanted his remand to take him to Delhi and Gujarat to verify details of the companies," he said. STF recovered two passports and two PAN cards from Jain. Tripathy said one passport was Indian and the other issued by 'Samoga'. "When we contacted the protocol division of ministry of external affairs, we were told that no country by the name of Samoga exists," he said, adding both passports were signed by one Pushpa Ranjan. "We found that there is a genuine person by that name in the passport division of MEA. The Indian passport is genuine, so it calls for proper investigation as to how the seal and signature of the same person were found in a passport issued by a non-existent country," Tripathy said. As for the PAN cards, one was issued in the name of Harshvardhan Jain and the other in the name of HV Jain. Tripathy told the court that to verify how two applications were placed for the issuance of a PAN card by the same person, they needed to find out links that Jain used. Jain was a frequent flier to the UK and Dubai. He was known to controversial astrologer Chandraswami. Raj Kumar Mishra, SP of Noida STF, said there are many dots in the line to connect. "We are preparing a list of questions for Jain," he said. "STF has also found 22 bank accounts in the name of Jain, 12 of which are in India."
New Indian Express
21 hours ago
- New Indian Express
Fake embassy probe reveals Rs 300 crore scam, 162 foreign visits by accused
The arrest of Harshvardhan Jain, a 47-year-old man from Ghaziabad for operating a fake embassy, has revealed an elaborate web of deception, with alleged links to a Rs 300 crore scam, 162 foreign trips in a decade, and a network of shell companies with international reach. The man, Harshvardhan Jain, had been masquerading as a diplomat for years while allegedly luring people with overseas job offers and laundering money through the hawala route.
Time of India
a day ago
- Time of India
But will anybody give a dime about it?
UP police recently arrested 47-year-old Harshvardhan Jain for running a fake embassy in Ghaziabad. Although Jain was suspected to be involved in a global financial scam, the micronations he claimed to represent — Westarctica, Seborga, and Ladonia — do exist
New Straits Times
2 days ago
- New Straits Times
NST Leader: Due diligence the key to uncover scams
SCAMMERS come in various forms. Fake dentists and doctors are common, but a bogus ambassador? Not of one country, but four. That is exactly what Harshvardhan Jain, a Uttar Pradesh native of Ghaziabad, near New Delhi, has been accused of being for the past decade. Arguably, he is the world's first bogus ambassador representing that many countries. There was another fake diplomat, interestingly in Ghaziabad, impersonating the high commissioner of Oman as the police there discovered. His bogus world came crashing when he was arrested on March 13, India's English daily The Hindu reported. Like all scammers, Jain was after money. Yes, money for jobs in the "countries" he was an ambassador of. All four were calling themselves micronations. We do not know if Jain looked and acted like a diplomat, but the posh building he rented, with foreign flags and a few luxury cars with diplomatic number plates parked in front, did the locals in. According to AFP, when the police raided his "embassy", they recovered US$53,500 worth of Indian rupees, doctored passports and forged documents bearing stamps of India's Foreign Ministry. There are several lessons that scammers like Jain are teaching us. Firstly, scams mutate. Early scams that reached our shores were emails from bogus Nigerian royals, willing to share their inheritance if we helped them pay to move the money overseas. When suspicions grew in tandem with the emails, there was no more request for money; just a plea for bank details so that the inheritance can be moved into our account. A clever attempt to get access to money without asking for it. A cleverer move was the African romance scams, with many Asian women, including Malaysians, losing their fortune in the process. Next were calls from fake courier companies claiming that our packages are stuck at Customs, but would be released if some payments are made to clear them. Then came the calls from bogus police officers and taxmen. Today, it is the turn of deepfake videos. Consider, too, this latest duping attempt from an inventive knave: an SMS stating "your WhatsApp is abnormal" and that the app would be shut down in 12 hours unless we click a link for help. The instruction to click is a dead giveaway. Plus, why SMS and not WhatsApp? But Jain takes the cake. He doesn't call. The victims walk into the "embassy" and get taken in by the facade mimicking the real, which brings us to the second lesson: vigilance, the art of being alert to signs of danger. Admittedly, it is not an easy thing to do, but not an impossible one either. Consider Jain's trickery. Granted, the swanky building with flags to boot and luxury cars with diplomatic number plates parked outside added to the believability score. But what "nations" was he a diplomat of? West Arctica, Seborga, Poulvia and Lodonia, clearly are non-existent states claiming to be micronations. Surely, a little due diligence would have uncovered it. Scams are all about money or its equivalent. This we know. The trick is to be aware of how the scammers gain access to either, the final lesson scammers unwittingly have left us with.
New Indian Express
2 days ago
- New Indian Express
Ghaziabad 'fake embassy' probe exposes Rs 300 crore scam, 162 foreign visits by accused, 25 shell firms: Report
The arrest of Harshvardhan Jain, a 47-year-old man from Ghaziabad for operating a fake embassy, has revealed an elaborate web of deception, with alleged links to a Rs 300 crore scam, 162 foreign trips in a decade, and a network of shell companies with international reach. The man, Harshvardhan Jain, had been masquerading as a diplomat for years while allegedly luring people with overseas job offers and laundering money through the hawala route. The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) arrested Jain last week from a swanky, two-storey rented house in Ghaziabad. The premises bore a nameplate declaring it as the 'Grand Duchy of Westarctica' and identifying Jain as 'H.E. HV Jain, Honorary Consul.' An NDTV report says that Jain had rented the current building just six months ago, but the fake embassy operation had allegedly been running since 2017, a span of nearly eight years. Flags of India and the fictitious Westarctica — a self-proclaimed micronation in Antarctica with no international recognition — were displayed prominently outside the building. The STF seized four cars with fake diplomatic number plates, forged documents, and a luxury watch collection during the raid.
