India’s investigative agencies CBI, RBI, ED, SFIO and SEBI are sub-contracting sensitive investigations to foreign spy firms.
Owing to enormous FDI inflows into India our investigative agencies are finding it hard to cope up with increased scrutiny, investigations and financial frauds. In past few years we allowed enormous FDI inflows into India but did we upgraded our agencies to combat global financial frauds?Owing to this negligence & oversight of GoI now sensitive investigations are being handed over to private investigation firms setup by foreign spy agencies. Private investigation firms setup by foreign spy agencies including CIA and Mossad are being handed over India’s sensitive investigations by our law enforcement agencies. New York based Mintz Group, California-based Berkeley Research Group, Pinkerton and Kroll are few that are being subcontracted for sensitive investigations.
Given the increased scrutiny on overseas investments, the demand for such investigations has risen exponentially. That’s why more private investigation firms such as New York-headquartered Mintz Group and California-based Berkeley Research Group are setting up shop in India, joining well-established names like Pinkerton and Kroll.
These are firms with connections within the global official spy networks to whom the Reserve Bank of India, Central Bureau of Investigation, Enforcement Directorate, Securities and Exchange Board of India and Serious Fraud Investigation Office have been out sourcing sensitive investigations.
Over the past two years, several Indian law enforcement agencies such as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate and Serious Fraud Investigation Office have been using the services of private investigation firms to probe financial crime as they intensify their scrutiny of offenders.
Regulators such as the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have also sub-contracted sensitive investigations to third parties.
Recently a money laundering scandal involving IT officials, top politicians & prominent businessmen from Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad and Vadodara was exposed. These officials, politicians and businessmen were caught laundering money to Nigeria, Dubai, British Virgin Islands & US.
However the IT Team which carried out the search suppressed the recovery of a diary containing details of several suspicious transactions and did not question the businessman or the politicians about the entries.
Would our investigative agencies also subcontract such cases involving top politicians and businessmen to foreign spy firms? And whose interest do you think these foreign spy firms would act upon? Such activities have raised concern among officials of probable implications for the country’s sovereignty.
Last year we reported how the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was caught investigating in Kolkata, West Bengal without the state’s knowledge. The seven-member team of FBI investigators were there to question an arrest a terror group operative alleged to have plans to hit US interest. What was of concern however was that neither the Home Ministry was informed formally nor the West Bengal state authorities knew about this FBI visit.
Further investigation by The Quint revealed the NIA “agency-to-agency” agreement with the FBI which allows FBI to probe terrorism-related cases in India, without taking the concerned state government’s permission.
In a decision impinging on the sovereignty of India, the National Investigation Agency (NIA), with the approval of the Narendra Modi government, has signed an “agency-to-agency” agreement by which the American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) can probe any terrorism-related cases without having to seek the permission of the concerned state governments.
Both central and state government sources said that according to the NIA-FBI agreement, the American counter-terrorism agency was not bound to seek permission before proceeding with a ground investigation in any state. Even different State Police need permission in other’s region, then why not the FBI?
We learnt in a startling disclosure last month how CIA agents can access Aadhaar database via UIDAI certified company Cross Match and how foreign firms had access to unencrypted Aadhaar data because the UIDAI contracts itself permitted it.
One of the directors of L1 Identity, the company contracted by UIDAI for Aadhaar was George Tenet, director of the CIA. After leaving the CIA Tenet joined L1 Identity. One of L1s client’s was also the CIA. Apart from Tenet, Loius Freeh, former head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Admiral Loy, who was the acting director of US Homeland Security were/are also members of L1’s board of directors.
Were these contracts for the biometric Aadhaar database given to foreign spy agencies/firms to help them in investigating Indians in India? These are issues involving the active presence of foreign investigating agencies and their investigating firms, which is an issue that has far-reaching implications for the country’s sovereignty. Would the self-proclaimed nationalist party of India take action against it?