My name is Sharad and I am a businessman. I met Prashanth Balaji Singh in a trade fair and he said that he is an exporter of metals and minerals. He seemed like a good person and knowledgeable too.
At that point I didn’t have a shared or common interest and took his card and forgot all about him. Some six months back he called me asking if I interested in importing scrap metal. He said his friend based in Brazil wanted to export scrap metals to India and was seeking a trader here but since he was already involved in importing the metal from elsewhere and had signed a non-competence clause.
I didn’t agree to it at first but he was persuasive and met me at my office and asked me to at least meet with his friend before I rejected the whole idea. We met his friend the following week. His friend Ghansham said that he knew a shipyard where a ship was about to go for scrap in SA and that he wanted to sell it India as it was the biggest market and didn’t know anyone here and a lot of more bullshit. I didn’t doubt for a second that he could be taking me for a ride.
Prashanth said that all I had to do was make an invoice and that he would take care of the rest. Then came the biggest clause he wanted me to make payment to him and that he would forward the money to his friend in SA so I wouldn’t have to worry about the conversion and all.
It sounded perfect and I agreed I made a part payment of $10,000 nearly Rs. 7,00,000. I knew that scrap metal would be of a good value in India owing to the several infrastructure projects and the increasing need for iron. Prashanth said that I had made a sweet deal and said that he expected a commission of 10% from the deal which was a lot but I knew I would make a profit of nearly 30% and managed to dissuade him and get him to agree to a 4% commission. Prashanth wanted the money to be wired to his bank account in Dubai RAK Bank which I promptly did.
At this point of time I didn’t know that Prashanth was a fraud or that he is wanted in several countries for hawala. The shipment was supposed to arrive in a month and it didn’t, Prashanth said that it was delayed by two-weeks. I had to pay the rest of the amount nearly $10,000 to Prashant once the consignment arrived. I get a call from Ghanshyam that he is in dire need of money and if I could advance him some more. He sounded desperate and I decided to pay him $5,000 via Prashanth.
The shipment doesn’t arrive on time; I am still under the impression that it is late whereas there was no such shipment sent. Prashanth was the ring leader and Ghanshyam was just a pawn. They made me pay money in advance so that they could run away with it. I tried calling Prashanth and Ghanshyam both their numbers were unreachable.