Sunday, November 18, 2012

Sahaj Marg(tm) Let's Talk Money!

Taken and translated from an article by Alexis: "Et si on parlait d'argent", on his blog in Europe: "La Fabuleuse Épopée du Sahaj Marg"


Let's talk money ...


In 1976, so as to control NGO (Non-Government Organizations) funds coming from abroad, the Indian government put in place the "Foreign Contribution Regulation Act" (FCRA) to avoid the excessive "... influence of the foreign hand" on the policy and the public projects of India.  Each year, the Department of Indian Affairs publishes a list of the NGOs in the country. For those who exceed ten million rupees in revenue from abroad, it also publishes the names of donors and the amount of their "foreign contribution", as well as the total amount of expenditures made by the NGO ( see http://mha.nic.in/fcra.htm ).

To see List of Foreign Donors (with dates and amounts): 

*Click on FCRA link.  
*Under: "Foreigner's Division" (Yellow tab on left),  scroll down and click on: "Associations that received over one crore rupees in a financial year".  
*Select year, and then Select State and click on "Get Records":  (The Foundation (SMSF) is in Tamil Nadu, and the Society (SRCM) is in Uttar Pradesh).
*Click on the society (SRCM) or the Foundaitons (SMSF, LMES, BVET, etc...) to see the lists of donors.
* Click on  "Find" (Look under "Edit" in your browser) to find the info on a donor inside the document.  Enter the "search words" in the box which opens up at the bottom of the page.

 
Regarding Chari's Sahaj Marg(tm), the Indian SMSF, SRCM, LMES (Lalaji Memorial Education Society), and  BVET (Chari Foundation: Baal Vatika Education Trust)  are duly recorded  (RCN respective Registration Numbers: TN 075900957R, UP 136700005R, TN 075901050R and TN 075901033R). The SMSF and the SRCM blithely exceed the threshold, and their accounts are available for the years 2006 to 2011.  The LMES appears in 2006, 2008 and 2009. The BVET does not reach this threshold during this period ...
 
Let us recall and understand that Chari's school  (Lalaji Memorial Omega International School or LMOIS) is controlled and funded by two societies: LMES (Lalaji Memorial Educational Society) and the BVET. (Chari's Baal Vatika Educational Trust).  (Baal = Master or Lord ?, Vatika = Hermitage (note "Vatican" roots) 


Foreign Contributions
 
According to the FCRA, revenues from India and abroad for the  SRCM and  SMSF combined , accumulated over 6 years (01/04/2006 to 31/03/2012) reached almost 2 billion rupees (28 million euros or $ 35 million U.S. dollars).   It is composed of half from donations, half from the interest earned on the financial assets or capital gains over time.
 
Expenses represent 40% of revenues and are widely covered by the interest on investments.  In fact, the latter are strong and are steadily increasing (multiplied by 16 time in 6 years): 31 million rupees in 2006 to 521 million rupees in 2011 (7.4 million Euros  or  $ 9.5 million dollars ). Consequence: with benefits (donations minus expenses), interest has allowed the financial capital to be multiplied by 2 in 7 years, from one billion rupees in April 1, 2006 to 2.2 billion rupees as of  March 31, 2012 (31 million  €  or $40 million dollars).
 

What is the difference between the Mission and the Foundation?

Their respective turnovers are relatively close from 58% for the Mission and 42% for the Foundation. But then, 64% of the donations are made to the Foundation, while 65% of the interest is produced by the Mission, which spends more than 3 quarters of its revenues, where the Foundation is confined to just over 10% ...
 
The Mission's capital is hence much greater than its Foundation! This is not  surprising, it benefits from its anteriority (grandfather clause) ... Otherwise, the picture drawn by these accounting items is nothing close to what Chari assigns as their respective objectives today, the Mission is responsible for the daily expenses, living on the interests from its capital; the donations are mostly managed by the Foundation which invests it, notably in real estate (over a quarter goes to  LMOIS for example) or 4.6 million Euros, $ 5.8 million dollars).
 

Where it diverges somewhat from the announced statements is that the Foundation spends very little in proportion to the capital gains and the increase (360% increase in capital over the period, against 120% for the Mission over the same period). Finally, the Mission does not need anything to meet its expenses since it survives very comfortably on the interest from its capital.

Contributions (membership fees), donation and profits from the sales of publications are no longer needed neither by the Mission nor the Foundation! So what projects do Chari and Patel have in the works to continue to squeeze the abhyasis?


Who funds the Mission?

The Indian SRCM and SMSF therefore received 1,012,703,272 rupees in donations from abroad in 6 years, 14.5 million Euros or $ 18.4 million dollars. They come in at 76% from North America, 15% from Western Europe, 5% from Asia (excluding India), 1.5% from Eastern Europe, 1% from Oceania,  0.7%  from Africa, and 0.1% from Latin America. Countries which are the largest donors are 73% from the United States, France donates at 5%,  and 5% and 2% come from Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates.

Of all these donations, 17% are anonymous thus transiting through the missions or national foundations, and only their country of origin is known, but we know the donor's name for the 83% remaining. There are 280 who  have given more than 100,000 rupees at least once in 6 years, they account for 72% of all donations.

The top 50 largest donors account for 62% of all donations, 34 of them are of Indian origin, specifically 31 are Indo-American.   Most are at the head of start-ups in the computer hardware or software, or they are in the production of generic drugs. They are indeed the new Indian middle class, a generation of expatriates uprooted and torn between their origins and modernity.

The first three of them have contributed more than half of the donations (more than 400,000 per donor per year), the following 47 more than 10% (5,924 euros per donor per year), and the 230 others also 10%  (931 euros per donor per year).

But then, who owns the Mission?

You want the answer?


Number 1: Madhava Reddy supports the U.S. Republicans (political party) but much more the SRCM. Personally, or through the Lachimi Foundation or through his start-up HTC Global Services, he paid almost 266 million rupees (3.8 million Euros or $ 4.8 million dollars) in 6 years according to the FCRA, or more than a quarter of the foreign donations made to the Mission and to its SMSF Foundation.

This expert accountant is the CEO and founder in 1992 of the Global Hi Tech Consultant Services Inc. of Troy, Michigan (www.htcinc.com).  According to The Hindu Business Line dated March 8, 2012, the company for computer and  technology solutions employs 4,000 people and generates revenues of about $ 160 million.  It is also present in India, (in Chennai and Hyderabad), in Australia, Canada, Malaysia, Singapore and the United Kingdom. Two of its vice-presidents also donated to the Mission (SRCM) and its foundation (SMSF) 3 million rupees between them in the same time period . Incidentally, Reddy is also a member of the Board of Caraco Pharmaceutical Laboratories Ltd. (www.caraco.com), a subsidiary of SunPharma.

In 1999, Madhava Reddy created the Lachimi Foundation to manage most of his donations to the Mission without having to pay fiscal taxes.  Between 1999 and 2010, the accounts of the Lachimi Foundation show payments totaling more than $ 10 million dollars.

Chari currently resides in the cottage (within the confines of Babuji Memorial Ashram) of this preceptor of Sahaj Marg, who is also a member of the Board of Directors of the SRCM in the U.S., according to Echoes of India in November 2012.


Number 2: Madhusudanarao Kothapalli paid more than 137 million rupees ($ 2 million Euros or $ 2.6 million dollars) to the Mission and its foundation over the same period according to the FCRA, or nearly 14% of all foreign donations.

Originally from Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh, the Indo-American immigrant co-founded in 1998 CorePharma LLC in New Jersey (www.corepharma.com).

In 2005 he resold his shares in the company to the RoundTable Healthcare Partners LLP, created the Aravind Foundation and donated $ 5 million through this foundation: 1 million to the SRCM and another million to the Baal Vatika Educational Society (BVET- the future LMES) in 2005, $ 3 million to the SMSF in 2006 ... and again 28,000 dollars to SRCM in 2009.
 
In 2011, Madhu Kothapalli founded another R&D generic drugs company in his hometown of Hyderabad, India 
(www.leiutis.com/).  Chari is in the habit of inviting himself to the residence of this preceptor when staying in Hyderabad.

Number 3: Our beloved Vice President and successor to Chari, Kamlesh Desaibhai Patel, whose birthday was last September 28th,  paid personally or through his family and his network of pharmacies, to the Mission and its Foundation, over 108 million rupees (1.5 million Euros or $ 2 million dollars), still in the same time period, according to the FCRA, or more than 10% of all foreign donations.  Two of his colleagues and friends, pharmacists from New York  have also paid between them, more than 5 million rupees, but I did not find any evidence that they work for him.

 
I will not return to the background of the next master of the SRCM which was already somewhat documented. The question I ask myself is one about what comes first, the egg or the hen: Patel will succeed Chari because he has paid for his place or is it because he was chosen by Chari that he pays? Knowing he was already paying when Ajay Kumar Bhatter was supposed to succeed Chari.  Besides, how much had Ajay (Kumar Bhatter) paidI did not have the answer because he is Indian and therefore he is not recognized in the foreign donors list!  What a Shame ...


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