A LAWYER representing a mining company based in Iba, Zambales, appealed to the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) to stop the alleged illegal activities of two Indians who were accused by company officials of illegally shipping out magnetite sand to China.
The MGB is the government’s mining regulatory body authorized to issue mineral ore-export permits to mining companies that extract and ship out of the country raw metallic minerals such as magnetite sand, also known as black sand.
The two Indians—Maqsood Ahmed Khan and Koyanna Venugopal Krishna Reddy—are former officials of Templeton Resources Inc. (TPI), a mining company based in Iba, Zambales, whose operation was eventually ordered stopped by the local government of Zambales.
Khan and Reddy were earlier charged before the Prosecutor’s Office in Iba, Zambales, for allegedly failing to account for the proceeds of huge volumes of magnetite or black sand, worth round $6 million that they allegedly illegally shipped out to China, lawyer Argee Guevarra said in a statement.
Guevarra said that subsequent investigation conducted by the company in connection with the company’s missing funds exposed the possible money-laundering activities and links of the two Indian nationals to the terrorist organization al-Qaeda.
Guevarra has alerted Malacañang in a letter dated January 12 about the allegations.
In his letter addressed to Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr., chairman of the Anti-Terrorism Council, Guevarra asked that the two Indians be immediately placed under investigation.
Guevarra suspects that the two were merely using their connection to TPI as front of their money-laundering activities and possible links to terrorists.
“When our clients would call the attention of the Indians that they were buying finished black sand at high price and exporting it at low prices, the Indians never cared. What they cared about was merely to project an image of dollar earnings even if TRI was operating at a loss,” Guevarra said.
The suspicious activities of Khan and Reddy led to an investigation by the company’s stakeholders.
The sale of the magnetite sand facilitated by Khan and Reddy, which was not authorized by TPI, was illegal, Guevarra said.
The two were not authorized by the company’s board of directors to haul or sell magnetite sand from the company’s stockpiles, he said.
Khan and Reddy used to represent TPI before they were eventually dismissed from the company.
Khan served as technical consultant, while Reddy served as right-hand man of former Chairman Guru Prasad, who left the company in May 2014 when the Bureau of Immigration issued a deportation order against him for being an undesirable alien.
Prior to his deportation, Prasad managed to change the ownership structure of the company. He took possession of the company, securing 92-percent ownership of the company by Templeton Resources Singapore, reportedly, a company established by Prasad.
Guevarra said Prasad and Templeton violated the 60-40 rule since the Constituttion mandates 60-percent Filipino ownership of mining businesses.
When Prasad left, Reddy and Khan followed suit and were made to resign from the company.
The local government of Zambales, likewise, ordered the company to shut down its operations in Iba, Zambales.
In spite of the stop order, Khan and Reddy reportedly managed to ship out 33,330 metric tons of magnetite sand from the company’s plant in San Marcelino, Zambales. The two made additional exportations which all amounted to $6 million.
Khan, Reddy and Prasad were all charged with large-scale theft before the Prosecutor’s Office in Zambales.
When asked where they sent the missing funds, Khan reportedly admitted that the proceeds went instead to an OCBC Singapore bank account 517746848001 under the sole name of Guru Prasad.
When Prasad was asked, he admitted that he remitted the money to Mali, China, Peru and other countries. Prasad said part of the monies were used to bribe al-Qaeda operatives in Mali. It was later learned that the rebel Tuaregs allied with al-Qaeda were tagged as the main beneficiary of the monies.
Khan and Prasad also allegedly boasted that they are being supported by their “chairman” by the name of Khalander Hayath Khan based in Bangalore, India. Khalander Khan owns Upkar Mining, which is strongly connected with the group of Dawood Ibrahim.
Intelligence reports identified Ibrahim as the foremost leader of the al-Qaeda in India and Pakistan.
The local partners of the company, likewise, noted how, despite the closure of operations, monies from abroad continues to flow to the company’s two bank accounts in Banco de Oro.