"A correspondence to this connection has been made via Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday," said an official at Ministry of Finance (MoF). [break]
In its letter, MoF has requested the Embassy to hold talks with the US government, seeking its support to review the verdict on the basis of which Khatri managed to retrieve the money, briefing the case in detail to it. The Embassy will also request the US government to uphold the case currently sub-judice in Nepal.
Khatri had retrieved the money, mainly after a court in New York issued a verdict in his favor two weeks ago - apparently due to poor communication among the concerned authorities.
In his petition, Khatri had sought retrieval of the money he paid to Wu Lixian, a Chinese national who has been supplying logistics to the Nepal Army and Nepal Police, as the recipient bank in Nepal -- Nepal Bangladesh (NB) Bank -- did not pay the money to Wu. He had named DRI and NRB as defendants in the case.
Based on the court´s verdict, Chase Bank that made the payment on July 14, 2008 had deducted a million dollars from an account held by Nepal´s central bank to make the payment.
The official disclosed that the formal initiatives to retrieve NRB´s money and uphold the case sub-judice in Nepal was taken after the MoF had informal talks on the case with the senior US Embassy officials.
Given the nature of crime under which KC´s payment was frozen, they had responded to the government´s call positively. "We have been assured all possible support in the case," said the source, refusing to elaborate further.
The payment made by KC - the proprietor of Colorado-based Tarala International -- which was transferred to an account of Wu in NB Bank´s Bhaisepati branch, was frozen mainly after the Department of Revenue Investigation (DRI) overseeing money-laundering cases identified the transfer of being dubious in nature.
Wu, in his statement to DRI, had said the money was transferred to Nepal mainly because he was required to make payment worth Rs 50 million to local agents who supported him to supply non-armed logistics to Nepal Police in Sudan. He had also said that additional payment of about Rs 20 million was needed to pay a contractor he hired to build prefab houses in Kathmandu.
However, DRI froze the amount after Wu and his local agent -- Shambhu Bharati of Bhagawati Traders -- failed to produce documents from concerned agencies like letter of credit, customs declaration and order placement to prove that his claims over payment was genuine.
Also, the contractor to whom Wu claimed payment dues of Rs 20 million had turned out to be a naïve carpenter of Mahottari, Shiva Mandal, and his statement had contradicted with what Wu recorded.
Amid such development, Wu refused to cooperate further in the investigation, following which the DRI on February 28, 2011 filed a case against him at the Special Court, Kathmandu, on charges of money laundering.
The court has presently issued a letter, summoning Wu to the court within 30 days.
Concerned officials, meanwhile, suspect that Wu´s payment could be related with unscrupulous deal that is linked with supply of logistics to Nepal Police´s peacekeeping mission in Sudan.
"The link exists because Wu - under the sub-contract of Tarala International - was engaged in supplying logistics to Nepal Police in Sudan and also built prefab houses in Kathmandu," said the source.
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