Site icon KonnieMoments

Money is thicker than blood: Indian mogul ‘steals $2.7M (£2million) aid’ funds

&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpcnt">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpa">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<span class&equals;"wpa-about">Advertisements<&sol;span>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"u top&lowbar;amp">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<amp-ad width&equals;"300" height&equals;"265"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; type&equals;"pubmine"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-siteid&equals;"109460728"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-section&equals;"1">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;amp-ad>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div><div class&equals;"articleWide cleared">&NewLine;<div class&equals;"alpha">&NewLine;<div id&equals;"js-article-text" class&equals;"article-text wide">&NewLine;<h1><span style&equals;"color&colon;&num;420b0b&semi;">&&num;8230&semi; then &&num;8216&semi;strangled his stepdaughter to cover it up&&num;8217&semi; <&sol;span><&sol;h1>&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<div class&equals;"articleWide cleared">&NewLine;<div class&equals;"alpha">&NewLine;<ul class&equals;"mol-bullets-with-font">&NewLine;<li class&equals;""><span style&equals;"color&colon;&num;0d2b07&semi;"><strong>Peter Mukerjea and wife are alleged to have syphoned off up to £90 million from TV empire<&sol;strong><&sol;span><&sol;li>&NewLine;<li class&equals;""><span style&equals;"color&colon;&num;0d2b07&semi;"><strong>He is accused of murdering his step-daughter Sheen Bora&comma; 25&comma; to cover up alleged theft <&sol;strong><&sol;span><&sol;li>&NewLine;<li class&equals;""><span style&equals;"color&colon;&num;0d2b07&semi;"><strong>Bora&comma; 25&comma; was Mrs Mukerjea&&num;8217&semi;s daughter from a previous marriage <&sol;strong><&sol;span><&sol;li>&NewLine;<li class&equals;""><span style&equals;"color&colon;&num;0d2b07&semi;"><strong>She had intimate knowledge of the couple&&num;8217&semi;s financial affairs and offshore bank accounts <&sol;strong><&sol;span><&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<p>A media mogul is behind bars in India accused of murdering his stepdaughter in an attempt to cover-up his alleged theft of millions of pounds of British foreign aid&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Peter Mukerjea and his wife Indrani are alleged to have syphoned off up to £90million from their television empire&comma; which was set up with an estimated minimum of £2million from the Department for International Development &lpar;DFID&rpar;&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Sheen Bora&comma; 25&comma; Mrs Mukerjea&&num;8217&semi;s daughter from a previous marriage&comma; had intimate knowledge of the couple&&num;8217&semi;s financial affairs and offshore bank accounts&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;She went missing in April 2012&period; The following month the charred remains of her body were found hidden deep in woods in a remote village in India&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h5><strong><img class&equals;"alignnone size-full wp-image-11012" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;konniemoments&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;04&sol;3340133400000578-0-image-m-13&lowbar;1460845149952&period;jpg" alt&equals;"3340133400000578-0-image-m-13&lowbar;1460845149952" width&equals;"634" height&equals;"415" &sol;><&sol;strong><br &sol;>&NewLine;<strong>Media mogul Peter Mukerjea &lpar;left&comma; with actor Richard Gere&rpar; is accused of murdering his stepdaughter Sheen Bora&comma; 25&comma; who had knowledge of his financial affairs and offshore bank accounts&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;h5>&NewLine;<p>She had been strangled&period; Detectives are investigating the allegation that she was killed to prevent her blowing the whistle on the offshore fraud&period; The focus of the investigation is now on suspected financial fraud&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<h3 id&equals;"ext-gen98" class&equals;"wocc">£4&comma;000&&num;8230&semi; TO HELP GAMBIANS CROSS THE ROAD<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>An overseas aid project that funded a new pedestrian crossing in The Gambia has come under fire from Sussex villagers who battled for more than ten years to get their own crossing – and then had to pay half the cost of it themselves&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The new crossing in the village of Cranedown finally opened on Friday&comma; but East Sussex County Council only gave approval last September when the villagers&comma; who raised £9&comma;000&comma; agreed to pay half of it&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Wendy Brewer&comma; chairman of the local residents&&num;8217&semi; association&comma; said&colon; &&num;8216&semi;I don&&num;8217&semi;t doubt there are many hazardous roads in Gambia&comma; but there is an endless demand for this sort of thing in the UK&period;&&num;8217&semi;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The Foreign and Commonwealth Office spent £4&comma;000 in 2014 on a new crossing in The Gambia&comma; which has an awful road safety record and where pedestrian deaths are commonplace&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;An FCO spokesman said&colon; &&num;8216&semi;Road safety is a major issue in The Gambia and we provided some funding towards a campaign to raise awareness&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&&num;8216&semi;A small proportion of this funding was used to establish pedestrian safety aids outside schools and hospitals&period;&&num;8217&semi;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<h5><img class&equals;"alignnone size-full wp-image-11031" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;konniemoments&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;04&sol;indrani-new-4a&period;jpg" alt&equals;"indrani-new-4a" width&equals;"700" height&equals;"525" &sol;>Indrani Mukerjea&comma; founder of 9X Media Pvt Ltd and former Star TV CEO Peter Mukerjea’s wife&comma; was arrested for alleged murder of her daughter Sheena Bora in 2012&period;<&sol;h5>&NewLine;<p>In 2006 the Mukerjeas set up INX Television using money from a range of backers including a relatively new private equity fund called The New Silk Route &lpar;NSR&rpar;&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;NSR was founded by raising almost £1 billion from a variety of investors including the CDC&comma; formerly the Commonwealth Development Corporation&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;CDC is the investment arm of the Government&&num;8217&semi;s overseas aid programme&comma; and is entirely funded by DFID&period; The CDC contributed £28 million to NSR which went on to invest in numerous projects across south Asia&comma; including the Mukerjeas&&num;8217&semi; INX Television start up&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;CDC say it is not possible to reveal the exact amount of British taxpayers&&num;8217&semi; cash that went into INX because of &&num;8216&semi;commercial confidentiality&&num;8217&semi; but the figure is thought to be at least £2 million&period; India&&num;8217&semi;s top law enforcement agency the Central Bureau of Investigation &lpar;CBI&rpar;&comma; suspect the Mukerjeas of taking swathes of money out of INX&comma; including money that originated from DFID&period;<img class&equals;"alignnone size-full wp-image-11011" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;konniemoments&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;04&sol;314bc13600000578-3450592-image-m-2&lowbar;1455695766090&period;jpg" alt&equals;"314bc13600000578-3450592-image-m-2&lowbar;1455695766090" width&equals;"634" height&equals;"638" &sol;><br &sol;>&NewLine;Last November the CBI lodged an application at a court in Mumbai for permission to access several offshore accounts to try to track down the missing money&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The CBI&&num;8217&semi;s Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh told the hearing&colon; &&num;8216&semi;Money siphoned off from INX dealings was routed to Sheena Bora&&num;8217&semi;s HSBC account in Singapore&period;&&num;8217&semi;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The CDC&&num;8217&semi;s decision to back NSR will raise a fresh round of serious questions about how it distributes DFID money&period; CDC has come under fire for making huge investments in elite developments in some of the world&&num;8217&semi;s poorest countries&comma; such as an £18 million investment in a development of upmarket flats and a business hotel in Nairobi&comma; Kenya&comma; and £17 million towards an &&num;8216&semi;aspirational ocean lifestyle village&&num;8217&semi; in Mauritius&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Mr Mukerjea&comma; 61&comma; was born in Bristol&comma; the son of a doctor and began his career with Terence Conran&&num;8217&semi;s retail empire Storehouse&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h5><strong><img class&equals;"irc&lowbar;mi iM3ce45uysgo-pQOPx8XEepE" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;dailyherald&period;com&sol;storyimage&sol;DA&sol;20150830&sol;business&sol;150839936&sol;AR&sol;0&sol;AR-150839936&period;jpg&amp&semi;updated&equals;201508300754&amp&semi;MaxW&equals;800&amp&semi;maxH&equals;800&amp&semi;noborder" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"647" height&equals;"404" &sol;><br &sol;>&NewLine;Bora &lpar;pictured&rpar; went missing in April 2012 and the following month&comma; the charred remains of her body were found hidden deep in woods in a remote village in India<&sol;strong><&sol;h5>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>£10&comma;000&&num;8230&semi; TO TEACH ARMENIA ABOUT KILTS<br &sol;>&NewLine;A bizarre series of films about Scotland made for Armenian TV and funded with £10&comma;000 of UK aid promised to teach viewers about kilts&comma; clans and how to drink whisky&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Entitled Scotland&colon; Mysterious And Real&comma; the programmes also included a feature on bagpipes and an interview with the former Labour Chancellor Alistair Darling&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The series&comma; made between 2011 and 2012&comma; received funding from the Foreign Office&comma; which paid for a four-person television crew to be flown from Armenia to Britain&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;An Armenian official said the aim of the programme was &&num;8216&semi;to present the Scottish best practices in the area of governance&comma; politics and economy to the Armenian society&&num;8217&semi;&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Eben Wilson&comma; from Taxpayer Scotland&comma; said&colon; &&num;8216&semi;This is yet another example of money going to places none of us would consider to be supporting the poor&period;&&num;8217&semi;<br &sol;>&NewLine;An FCO spokesman said the financial support was given to promote Britain &&num;8216&semi;to a developing country that will be an important political and economic partner in the future&period;&&num;8217&semi;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>His fortunes rocketed when he moved to Mumbai to work for Rupert Murdoch&&num;8217&semi;s Indian media giant Star TV where he was chief executive officer until 2007 when his wife set up INX&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Miss Bora&comma; an executive with the Mumbai Metro transport system was the daughter of Mrs Mukerjea and her first husband Siddhartha Das&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Mrs Mukerjea&&num;8217&semi;s second husband Sanjeev Khanna and her driver are reported to have confessed to kidnapping and killing Miss Bora&comma; allegedly under instructions from the Mukerjeas&period; A CDC spokesman said&colon; &&num;8216&semi;CDC takes extremely seriously any allegations about the misuse of its capital&period; There is no evidence that CDC&&num;8217&semi;s capital has been misused&period;&&num;8217&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h5><em>Lets us know what you think of this article&period; Like&quest; Dislike&quest; Funny&quest; Interesting&quest; Cool&quest;  Drop us a line in the comment box or join us on facebook and twitter to help us give you a better reading experience<&sol;em><&sol;h5>&NewLine;

Exit mobile version