Q. What is your relation with Abhishek Verma and how long have you known him?
A: I was introduced to Abhishek Verma over the phone by Steven Karolyi in 1999 who requested me to provide escrow services. Steven Karolyi was Abhishek Verma’s financial advisor till 2004 when Verma cheated him, after which they fell out.
In 2004, Verma contacted me and asked me if he could renew our escrow agreement, which we did as he wanted to invest in Atlas Telecom Bermuda for whom he fraudulently borrowed USD 1 million using what were later found to be forged bank documents.
In 2006, Verma was arrested in the Navy war room leak case. While in jail he kept contacting me as he had a mobile with him. In 2008, when he got bail he once again asked me to become his escrow agent as well as his financial adviser.
In November 2011, he asked me to forge a document to defraud a Mauritian company from whom he had borrowed USD 300,000 and when I flatly refused, he threatened to get me implicated in a false case in India. Alarmed at that I contacted the FBI, who told me to file a complaint with the CBI and others, which I did.
Please note my business relationship with Verma has been thoroughly investigated by the FBI, CBI, ED and the Indian courts and they have themselves stated that I too was a victim of Verma.
Q. You recently released pictures and wrote to Indian authorities alleging that a BJP MP was honey trapped by Abhishek Verma. By your own admission the alleged “honey trapping” took place a long time back. Why did you release the pictures now? Why not earlier?
A: Vikki Choudhry, once a dear friend of Abhishek Verma, in fact reminded me of the existence of these photos in January 2016 after which I searched for them on my old computer and found them. Choudhry, who is a key CBI witness now and based in Delhi, can be contacted as a witness to confirm that Abhishek Verma flaunted these photos to select defence companies.
Please note my business relationship with Verma has been thoroughly investigated by the FBI, CBI, ED and the Indian courts and they have themselves stated that I too was a victim of Verma.
A: Yes. Abhishek Verma has a long list of defence serving and retired officers, politicians, all of who have been honey trapped. Abhishek Verma was blackmailing S. Mallya by honey trapping an Australian cricketer in the IPL by using a dubious model called Zoe Hamid for whom he had obtained a visa to visit India.
Later when she was exposed he passed her off as a Sig Sauer employee.
Q. You had met senior CBI officials in 2012. Did you share the documents and pictures that you released recently with the CBI then? If no, then why not?
A: I gave the details to the FBI as well as the CBI team in 2012 who had verified them to be genuine and thanks to that, charges have been framed by courts under forgery, OSA and FCPA and one case of money laundering against the Vermas. The CBI team in 2012 picked up all emails including the ones in my recent PMO complaint, but they did not investigate for reasons best known to them. I suspect the CBI was pressured not to take action against Varun Gandhi as after all he is a Gandhi by name.