This
was sent to us from a LEF member who watched the fraud in LEF in close
quarters:
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In a
nice city a senior evangelist wanted to buy a land to build a center. Ok, that
is a reasonable desire and nobody should have a problem with that. Raising
money was not a problem as he had high connections. The only thing that was
needed was “due diligence” – diligence to carefully spend God’s money that
thousands of people have given sacrificing. This evangelist was so secretive
that he refused to discuss anything about the selection of the land. He
unanimously decided that about 20,000 square feet is required. Sadly such large
piece of land was not available in the area they were looking at as one piece
of property. In came a gentleman, let us call him Mr. Moonshine Fraud. He told
the senior evangelist “Father Xavier Daniel, I will help you. I will give you
14 individual plots in a residential layout of 1200 square feet each (40x30
feet). You buy them in the names of 14 different individuals’ names as these
plots cannot be sold to a society/ fellowship. After purchase let all 14
individuals write to the government that they will donate the plots to LEF,
which can amalgamated (join all into one large plot) and build a large building
in the center”.
A
friend warned Father Xavier Daniel, “You can’t stich a suit from 14 pieces of
cloth, buy a single large individual plot.” But now Mr. Moonshine Fraud, who is
a super deluxe salesman (who always opened a Fanta bottle as soon as he saw
Father Xavier Daniel) talked and talked and sold his idea to Father Xavier
Daniel. Both Father Xavier Daniel and Mrs. Father Xavier Daniel liked him very
much.
The
problem with the above approach was that government rules are so strict that
amalgamations will not be allowed. Change in land use from residential to
commercial/religious will not be allowed due to zoning regulations. Even a
junior most lawyer would have told him. But who cares to do due diligence
in LEF? LEF money is so cheap and who cares if it is plundered and misused? The
land was purchased in 14 individuals names from funds provided by LEF (this is
against all trust rules, why should the LEF buy in another’s name, it must buy
in its own name represented by the President). Registration was also done for
14 plots.
After
the registration was done, Father Xavier Daniel went to inspect the land. He
saw the properties and asked-“Mr. Moonshine Fraud, what is this? A road is
running through the 14 plots how to join, It is the first time I am seeing the
plots”, Mr. Moonshine Fraud smiled and said, “Sir it is to your advantage, we
can tunnel under the road, or build over it (both are impossible) or do both.”
Then father Xavier Daniel asked, “What is the large depression in the ground?”
This was a large drainage channel, where no plot can be sold. Mr. Moonshine
Fraud smiled and said, “Sir, it is to your double advantage, you need not dig a
foundation, you can save the money.” Mr. Moonshine Fraud smiled like a Cheshire
cat and got the money as his commission and sale proceeds. At the end of all
this Mr. Moonshine Fraud grinned and opened another bottle of Fanta and drank
from it and took leave.
As I
know it LEF spent Rs.4,00,00,000 (4 crores) in 1990’s. With the inflation in
India, this amount can be as high as 200 crores (multiply by 50 to get todays
value). What came to light after this is even more disturbing. In the layout
Mr. Moonshine Fraud had sold more plots than were physically present, and so
Father Xavier Daniel’s plots were now not on the ground but above it! So now
the plots became 8 with a road dividing the plots and a large irrigation channel.
It would have made too much sense for Father Xavier Daniel to check the survey
numbers or ask one of his an associate to check the survey numbers. Again, who
cares? LEF money is cheap.
As
opposed to 14 owners, we now have only 8 owners. All 8 wrote a letter to the
government and informed that they are ready to donate the land to LEF. Nothing
worked. Mr. Moonshine Fraud told Father Xavier Daniel “The rotten minister who
is so strict has indeed written the numbers in his table and is waiting for you
to meet him with more money.” At this juncture as the place was an important
water source for the Army, they also put a wire fence around the plots and put
2 jawans to guard (so it was a litigated property) which Mr. Moonshine Fraud
had sold.
When
all of this came to the notice of the then LEF boss, the great leader said
(honestly true), “Put a large cement cross in the property to show the power of
the cross in this land matter”. The army sentries removed the cross and put it
in depot and the cross still lying there. So, can we conclude that LEF also has
made a mockery of the cross to cover their fraudulent activities?
At this
point, in came one more Mr. Crocodile Fraud, who was wearing a white cricket
uniform. He said, “I play in the cricket. The son of one Lalooji, who is the
Union defense minister also is in the same the team. When I am not playing in
the state Ranji trophy team… I do a lot of pro bono work. I have an access to
the Union defense minister through the son and I can help you clear the land”
Now, we all know that a union defense minister will not agree to selling the
defense property to build a church. But do we have any intelligent people in
LEF who can using this reasoning?
As the
news goes Mr. Crocodile Fraud wangled a flight ticket to New Delhi and hotel
stay at LEF expense. Then the Crocodile Fraud told “I know of one Joint
Secretary of Defense.” (in New Delhi, there may be 1500 officers at the rank of
Joint secretary). All that the Crocodile Fraud told were later found out to be
lies… The land was lost along with the 4 crores that was spent on this.Then the
LEF auditors raised a hue and cry, saying money was paid but no land was
received. Again another dishonorable standard practice in LEF was used to
silence the auditors. The auditors were chucked out… and new auditors were
hurriedly appointed
Eventually some of the plots
that were were sold, and the money was returned (of course when the plots were
sold the land value appreciated and again the frauds made considerable amount of money
because they returned the original sale amount to LEF and pocketed the
difference) After this the evangelist’s family went to Israel for a pilgrimage.
They were so large hearted that they even took the father of the of the
son-in-law (who a wag told me paid 1 rupee for the pilgrimages as he
didn’t want to go free!). There are stories that some plots are
still unsold, those of who want can contact…
If any ordinary evangelist had done this, he
would have been hanged from the nearest lamp post.
All is
well that ends well or juts ends. Implications to real people are incidental as
always when fraudulent activities are done in the name of God and religion.
This is written so that people know what
kind of fraud goes behind buying properties and how many innocent people can
get wrongly pulled into this mess (remember 14 individuals and their family who
were pulled into this). All that appears green in LEF is not green. A lot of
“red blood” was shed to make the LEF landscapes appear “lush green.”
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Disclaimer: We used pseudo names for obvious reasons