.Asean Holdings Inc - Street Wire Asean's Saxena now a $10-million (U.S.) fraud victim
Asean Holdings Inc
AHI
Shares issued 15,750,552
Tue 19 Feb 2002 Street Wire
by Brent Mudry
Not only does Rakesh Saxena not do frauds; he apparently does not recognizethem.
In what must be the most incredible setback for Mr. Saxena, an alleged key player in the fraudulent $2-billion collapse
of Bangkok Bank of Commerce six years ago, the fugitive Thai financier now claims he was hoodwinked
himself to the tune of $10-million in the fraudulent $1-billion collapse of General Commerce Bank SA in Austria. (All figures
are in U.S. dollars.)
The startling revelation comes in a lawsuit Mr. Saxena filed Monday in the Supreme Court of British Columbia, just a short
walk down the street from his luxury waterfront condo which doubles as his self-financed jail
cell.
The defendants include Raoul Berthaumieu, also known as plain old Lee Sanders, his wife Sylvie Sainlez, Nicole Sainlez,
Pacific Federal SA, all of Belgium, General Commerce Bank and Gerhard Deisner, both of Vienna,
and IBL Investments Bank Luxembourg.
The suit, filed by self-practising Vancouver lawyer A. Stewart Andree, describes Mr. Berthaumieu as a "businessman
dealing internationally in financial transactions in the major word (sic) capital markets," who fraudulently represented himself
as the chairman and authorized signing officer of General Commerce Bank.
While Mr. Saxena, a seasoned bank finance player in Thailand until he abruptly relocated in Vancouver in mid-1996, might
be the last person a reader would expect to be victimized in a massive banking fraud, that is the sorry story traced out in the suit. Mr. Saxena
claims that between January and September, 2001, General Commerce Bank, over the pen of Mr. Berthaumieu, issued a series of promissory notes which, lo
and behold, turned out to be worthless. "As a direct result of the collapse of the security the notes represented, the plaintiff was required to
drastically adjust his financial commitments
at a loss of exceeding $10,000,000 (US)," states lawyer Mr. Andree in the suit. The statement of claim does not note if Mr.
Saxena actually gave $10-million to General Commerce Bank, or if the fraudulent Austrian bank might have given him the
promissory notes for some other sort of consideration. Mr. Saxena could not be reached for immediate comment.
The Vancouver suit claims Mr. Berthaumieu's wife Sylvie Sainlez, who happens to be a lawyer, and Mr. Deisner, an officer of General Commerce Bank,
fraudulently represented themselves as having the duty and authority
to monitor and supervise the financial transactions which are the subject of the litigation. The action also claims that Nicole Sainlez, a "certified
account," which presumably is much the same as a certified accountant,
"professionally carelessly" represented herself in the same manner.
While Mr. Saxena is not your average sucker, he apparently fell victim to a fraud not much different from the prime banking
schemes which are so popular with greedy dopes everywhere. "GCB, the holder of the
notes, represented to the financial community at large, of which the plaintiff is a part, that the notes were good and valuable
security," states the suit.
Mr. Saxena claims that as a matter of his due diligence, he relied upon the written representations of co-defendants Pacific
Federal SA and IBL Investment Bank Luxembourg, which both distributed "widely
publicized information" to the financial community that the General Commerce Bank notes, issued over the signature of Mr.
Berthaumieu, were good and valid
negotiable instruments. The unfortunate fugitive financier claims that, in good faith and relying on the representations of the
defendations and through
negotiations, he arranged transfers or assignments "of portions of the security the notes represented." "The plaintiff ...
arranged the negotiated transfer of assets
to the benefit of the defendants Berthaumieu and Pacific Federal SA," the suit adds. What happened soon after can only
be described as shocking beyond belief."Following the transfers and assignments of interests the notes represented
and transfer of assets to the benefit of the defendants Berthaumieu and Pacific Federal SA ... GCB became insolvent and
the liquidator deemed the notes to be fraudulently issued and worthless," states lawyer Mr. Andree in
the suit. Mr. Saxena now claims that Mr. Berthaumieu and Pacific Federal have been unjustly enriched by the fraud and
misrepresentation at hisexpense.
Mr. Saxena now seeks damages of $10-million plus interest, in addition to unspecified general and special damages.
No date has yet been set for what will surely prove to be a fascinating trial. While the suit offers no further details on the
debacle, Stockwatch's own due diligence search has uncovered no shortage of intrigue. First, of course, is the lead
defendant Raoul Berthamieu, if indeed that is
his real name. The key General Commerce Bank figure rose to international banking prominence from rather humble
roots. More than a decade ago, in 1991, Mr. Berthamieu, also known as Lee Sanders, pleaded guilty to
felony bank fraud for writing $1.6-million in bogus cheques, at least if The Los Angeles Times is to be believed. Mr.
Berthamieu, then 46 and living in the Los Angeles suburb of Woodland Hills, cut a guilty plea in which the feds dropped
a charge that he carried more than $2.5-million in traveller's cheques which were stolen. The rubber-cheque fraudster
was indicted by a federal grand jury in November, 1989, of writing $1.6-million worth of worthless cheques on a Los Angeles
bank account and depositing them into a new account at Centerre Bank in
St.Louis, Mo., according to the newspaper.
The indictment noted Mr. Berthaumieu managed to withdraw $655,000 from his Centerre account until bankers got wise
to the scam. The grand jury indictment was kept under seal until Mr. Berthaumieu was arrested
in Melbourne, Australia, in June, 1990.
Mr. Berthaumieu, or Mr. Sanders if you prefer, and his General Commerce Bank group are now subjects of much attention
from police and regulators in Europe, Australia and even Thailand, of all places. Belgium's Banking and Finance
Commission has an official public warning
about both Pacific Federal SA, based in Corbais, Belgium, and General Commerce Bank, based in Vienna, for what it calls
"irregularly soliciting
public savings."
"According to the indications available to the Commission, those companies are supposedly offering, in Belgium or from
within Belgium, investment services with regard to financial instruments to Belgian and foreign savers. The Banking and Finance Commission informs the
public that
neither Pacific Federal SA nor General Commerce Bank AG have been granted the required authorization to offer or provide
such services in Belgium or from within Belgium," states the Belgian financial regulator.
Australia's Securities and Investments Commission also has a public warning out on General Commerce Bank AG, also
known as General Commerce Bank of Vienna, noting the company is not licensed to do securities business
in that country. The General Commerce affair marks the latest chapter in the intriguing book of Mr. Saxena's career of
international high, and low, finance. While Mr. Berthamieu is reputedly a Canadian by birth, Mr. Saxena, an Indian national
, hopes to become a Canadian by choice, at least once he gets some messy extradition matters out of the way.
Mr. Saxena fled from Thailand to Vancouver in mid-1996 just as the house-of-cards Bangkok Bank of Commerce was
imploding in a major banking scandal which led to the downfall of the governor of the Bank of Thailand
and the fall of the Thai government, and which was the first Asian banking collapse in the Asian meltdown which soon
followed. While arrest teams from the Royal Thai Police fanned out around the world in a hunt for Mr.
Saxena, he was arrested with a briefcase of cash at Whistler soon after Stockwatch revealed his presence in the
Vancouver
area. Thai officials blame former bank head Kirkiat Jalichandra, Mr. Saxena and his long-time close business associate
Adnan Khashoggi, a star of the
Iran-Contra scandal, for the bank's collapse under the weight of billions of dollars of dubious or failed loans.
In September, 2000, after the longest extradition hearing in Canadian history, a 92-day, four-year affair, Mr. Saxena was
ordered extradited to Thailand, but his appeals are expected to run several more years. In
the interim, Mr. Saxena is holed up in "the bunker," his waterfront condo, under $600,000-a-year (Canadian) self-imposed
house arrest. Among his most active Vancouver fronts is the youthful and attractive Allison Eaton.
Mr. Saxena, who perennially pops up in headlines on his intriguing financial affairs around the world, last enjoyed national
exposure in August, when Stockwatch revealed his business dealings with John Reynolds,
the former Howe Street penny stock promoter who is now the interim leader of Canada's official opposition. The
promoter-turned-prominent-politician had the misfortune of being sued by Vancouver brokerage Global Securities
over a whopping $484,000 (Canadian) debit in his account, stemming from his disastrous purchase of a block of 320,000
shares of WaveTech Networks, a Canadian bulletin board promotion which featured Mr. Saxena, 17 months
earlier, in March, 2000.
Mr. Reynolds made his disastrous WaveTech investment six weeks after joining the board of the penny stock promotion, a
position he left in about June, 2000, when he re-entered politics with the Canadian Alliance, a
grassroots reform party. "John Reynolds entered into a business transaction with Rakesh Saxena, pursuant to which Mr.
Reynolds became a director of WaveTech Networks," states Global in its lawsuit. While both Mr. Reynolds and Mr. Saxena
claim this allegation is false, the fugitive Thai financier subsequently spent months trying to help the former federal justice critic
out of his big-whopper debit.
As for the unfortunate Mr. Saxena, soon after dusting himself off from the WaveTech debacle with Mr. Reynolds, he ended up
mixed up in the General
Commerce Bank fiasco in Europe, as a victim, he claims.
(c) Copyright 2002 Canjex Publishing Ltd. www.stockwatch.com |
