Politics
The Mysterious Ghosh and His Dealings in Vanuatu
How Barak Sope's banking on the $US175 million ruby
Early in March Vanuatu's president, John Bani, a priest, lay sick in bed. Why did he have to be dragged from it urgently to endow Amarendra Nath Ghosh, who describes himself a Thai citizen, with signed credentials as Vanuatu's "roving ambassador" to Thailand and Laos? The answer to this mystery so far eludes the local newspaper, the Trading Post, which tried to probe it.
In the capital, Port Vila, businessmen engaged in the tax haven and other trades mull over other mysteries concerning Ghosh and his connections with prime minister Barak Sope and a former prime minister, Maxime Carlot. There is speculation about the real worth and origin of a lump of what Ghosh says is a 82.5 kilogramme ruby worth $US175 million deposited by him somewhere in Port Vila as, he says, something the government can use as security for borrowing.
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Sope told the Trading Post "yes, we will certainly look at buying United States treasury bonds using the guarantee of the ruby." Ghosh told local journalists he'd put up 10 percent of the cost of building a sealed road around Efate Island, Port Vila's location, for a new international airport able to accommodate Boeing 747 jets and an exclusive walled complex for the housing of the cabinet. The Trading Post reported that Ghosh was to be issued with $US300 million of government bearer bonds. Ghosh told the Australian Financial Review from Bangkok that the Vanuatu government had authorised him to "talk to institutions which will be the underwriters of the bonds". According to the Australian Financial Review the bonds could quadruple Vanuatu's foreign debt.
When the newspaper asked an American gem expert of international repute about the great ruby, it was assured that the rock was worthless mining waste, just rubble, that could be picked up around any ruby mine. Singapore newspapers have reported legal action in which the Industrial and Commercial Bank of Singapore won an action for $US12 million it brought against an Italian Bank, Banco Ambrosiano Veneto. This was over what were alleged to be two fraudulent letters of credit issued to enable Ghosh and a company controlled by him, Global Trade and Consultancy, to obtain credit facilities.
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In February, the Vientiane Times, an English-language newspaper in Laos, reported that Sope and Carlot visited the country and had declared that Vanuatu, which is starved for money for its own development, would invest in "agriculture, the mining industry, basic infrastructure and telecommunications" in Laos. Ambassadors would be appointed with Ghosh as the first ambassador to Laos with the "task of coordinating agreements". Vanuatu and Laos also agreed on non-interference in each other's internal affairs."
The Australian Financial Review, in a long account by Rowan Callick of Ghosh's Vanuatu connections, was told by Thai's Foreign Affairs it had yet to agree to Ghosh's consular role.
Back in Port Vila Carlot described how it was that Ghosh owned a "spectacular" resort hotel in partnership with the Thai Queen Mother, who he felt should be invited to Vanuatu. That would be a problem, explained the Australian Financial Review, since the lady died last July. Ghosh told the Trading Post he was recently given honorary citizenship of Vanuatu although the country has a 10-year requirement for naturalisation. The types of deal Ghosh says he is arranging for Vanuatu's benefit have a familiar ring around Port Vila, a town known for a constant procession through it of international travellers with deals to offer. The country's Ombudsman's Office has condemned past passport and honorary citizens deals and an affair in which Sope, then finance minister, signed promissory notes for tens of millions of dollar and issued them to an Australian businessman, Peter Swanson, an undischarged bankrupt. Swanson had promised to make a 250 percent profit from the notes.
Scotland Yard police and the Bank of England intervened to rescue Vanuatu from the risk of financial ruin.
A Vanuatu court awarded Swanson 18 months jail for fraud. But Carlot, then prime minister, obtained a presidential pardon for the Australian only three months into the sentence.
Reports from the Ombudsman issued several years ago said neither Sope nor Carlot should ever be allowed again to hold public office. That was before Sope got to be prime minister.
Ghosh's name began to be heard around Port Vila early in 2000. He was said to be buying the White Sands golf and country club. He was reported by the local press to have been given petroleum and mineral exploration and fish rights "royalty free".
Vanuatu has had bad luck with another of its consular appointments. Britain recently refused to accept the nomination of Dr Peter Chen Hung-kee as Vanuatu's honorary consul there.
London said it was not impressed by Chen's record: 15 years jail in Hong Kong for a gold robbery, three years jail for another robbery and a conviction for illegal gambling.
