Asean Holdings Inc (C-AHI) - Street Wire
Asean's Saxena faces $25-million (U.S.) libel suit
Asean Holdings Inc AHI
Thursday July 18 2002 Street Wire
by Brent Mudry
Nevada businessman Tariq Ahmad wasted little time firing back at Rakesh Saxena after being targeted by the fugitive Thai financier in a $15-million suit in Canada in late June. (All figures are in U.S. dollars.) Mr. Ahmad responded with a $25-million libel and defamation suit against Mr. Saxena, one of his Vancouver lawyers and one of his offshore companies, a week after Stockwatch revealed the initial suit.
Mr. Saxena, Marcala Foundation, based in the secretive offshore enclave of Liechtenstein, and lawyer Stewart Andree are named as defendants in a civil complaint filed July 3 in United States District Court for the District of Nevada in Reno. To support Nevada as a valid jurisdiction in which to file the suit, the action notes that Mr. Saxena is the president of Africa Resources Corp., a company the Thai fugitive states is incorporated in the state. The allegations have not yet been proven in court and no statements of defence have yet been filed.
In this latest suit, the wily Mr. Ahmad has turned the tables on the wily Mr. Saxena, revealing the fugitive financier, wanted as one of the top figures in the $2-billion collapse of the Bangkok Bank of Commerce in 1996, is being probed by American authorities for much more recent questionable financial dealings.
"In truth and fact, defendant Saxena is under criminal investigation by the FBI in Los Angeles, the District Attorney in the State of New Jersey and others for criminal activity, and is currently a defendant in a civil law suit for fraud in Los Angeles and for securities fraud in Salt Lake City, Utah," states the Nevada suit.
It should be noted that Mr. Saxena has not yet been charged in any U.S. cases and even if he is charged, he remains presumed innocent until proven guilty. These U.S. investigations, however, are quite embarrassing for Canadian officials, as Mr. Saxena is currently fighting an extradition order from Vancouver, where he lives under self-financed $375,000-a-year house arrest in a luxury waterfront condo close to Howe Street, an international centre of penny stock dealings. Mr. Saxena's house arrest arrangement, a Canadian first, has sparked quite some controversy already.
While the Saxena saga is rich with irony, scandal and intrigue, this current chapter has a special political twist. Opposition politicians would usually jump and down on Parliament Hill, claiming it is a mockery of Canada's justice system to have a foreign fugitive under U.S. investigation for alleged frauds committed while in custody under house arrest.
Last August, however, Stockwatch revealed that Canadian Alliance Member of Parliament, John Reynolds, one of the top figures in Canada's official opposition, was linked to Mr. Saxena. In numerous contacts, Mr. Saxena tried to help Mr. Reynolds work out a whopping $484,000 (Canadian) debit the politician left at Vancouver brokerage Global Securities.
Mr. Ahmad's current suit follows a Stockwatch story on June 27, which reported that the Reno entrepreneur was the latest figure named by Mr. Saxena in the $1-billion collapse of General Commerce Bank SA, a fraudulent Austrian bank linked to international boiler rooms, last year. In his June 26 suit, Mr. Saxena claims Mr. Ahmad worked closely with Raoul Berthaumieu of Belgium, the front man in the collapse of GCB, and helped raise $200-million in illicit proceeds from shares of penny stock shells controlled by or related to Mr. Saxena.
Mr. Ahmad claims that not only are Mr. Saxena's statements "completely false," the mischievious fugitive Thai financier faxed the Stockwatch article to Mr. Ahmad's employer in Reno, to Kamputech, an associated company in New Jersey, and to others, "all in order to destroy the reputation of the plaintiff and have the plaintiff fired from his job as an engineer."
Mr. Ahmad suggests that Mr. Saxena and his lawyer Mr. Andree need to get their facts straight. "Plaintiff (Ahmad) is not a financier, has never had any relationship with General Commerce Bank, has never raised any funds for shell companies currently or ever controlled by Saxena or for any shell companies," states the Nevada action.
The Reno businessman also claims Mr. Saxena embarked on a badmouthing campaign in retaliation for a $700,000 suit launched against him earlier this year in connection with Pacific Energy and Mining Co., one of Mr. Ahmad's companies. "As part of Saxena's defense strategy in the civil action ... Saxena commenced publication of false, defamatory and libelous statements, all in order to force plaintiff to drop his suit," states Mr. Ahmad in the current action.
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