Multiple overseas shell firms, bank accounts: Police reveal how ‘Ambassador of Westarctica’ was running fake embassies

After the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) arrested Harshvardhan Jain for running a fake embassy from his two-storey house in Ghaziabad, the investigators revealed his complex web of international financial deceit, with multiple businesses registered in foreign countries, including the United Kingdom, UAE, and Mauritius, the police said on Thursday (Jul 24).

Earlier on Wednesday (Jul 23), the STF said in a statement that the 47-year-old, who claimed to be the “Ambassador of Westarctica”, had multiple foreign shell companies and bank accounts in four countries. Jain had been running the illegal embassies of countries like West Arctica, Saborga, Poulvia, and Lodonia in his rented house in Kavinagar. Calling himself a Consul/Ambassador of those countries, he had been travelling in vehicles with diplomatic number plates.

The police uncovered that Jain, along with Saudi Arabian arms dealer Adnan Khawaja and a UK-based businessman, Ahsan Ali Sayed, registered multiple companies abroad. The companies included UK-based State Trading Corporation Ltd and East India Company UK Ltd, Mauritius-based Indira Overseas Ltd and Cameroon-based Cameron Ispat Sarl, and UAE-based Island General Trading Co LLC.

Jail was introduced to Khawaja and Sayed through a controversial figure, Chandraswami. He opened many shell companies in London with Sayed, who is a Turkish resident of Hyderabad origin and has multiple fraud cases registered against him. According to the police, Jain has six bank accounts in Dubai, three in the UK, one in Mauritius and one in India.

His introduction to Adnan Khawaja and Ahsan Ali Sayed was facilitated by a controversial political figure, Chandraswami. Sayed, a Hyderabad native, acquired Turkish citizenship and has a history of fraudulent activities, an officer said.

Jain has been booked under several sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) as STF works with the local police to obtain his remand for further probe. Earlier in 2012, a case was registered against him after he was found with illegal satellite phones.