Community
– that’s all you need to know
Bya StaffWriter
n Indian-American
owner and managing
partner of a hedge
fund fromWashington
D.C. pled guilty Feb. 1
to obstructing justice in an
investigation into his business
activities by the U.S. Securities
and Exchange Commission.
Vineet Kalucha, 51, pled
guilty in the U.S. District Court
for the District of Columbia. His
sentencing is scheduled for June
six, U.S. Attorney Channing D.
Phillips said.
The charge carries a statutory
maximum of five years in prison
and potential financial penal-
ties. Under the sentencing
guidelines, the parties have
agreed that Kalucha faces a like-
ly range of 10 to 16 months in
prison and a potential fine of
$3,000 to $30,000.
George Palathinkal of
Singapore and a business part-
ner of Kalucha, pled guilty in
March 2015 to a federal charge
of perjury. He is awaiting sen-
tencing.
According to the govern-
ment’s evidence, Kalucha
formed Aphelion Fund
Management LLC in 2012 and
was its majority owner, partner
and chief investment officer.
Palathinkal was the general part-
ner and chief financial officer.
The company served as the
investment adviser and general
partner for two unregistered
hedge funds.
In 2013, according to the gov-
ernment’s evidence, Kalucha,
Palathinkal, and Aphelion
Management began soliciting
new investors for the Aphelion
Funds. Kalucha subsequently
provided potential investors
with marketing materials for
Aphelion Management, using
“inaccurate performance statis-
tics”.
Among other things, Kalucha
altered a report prepared by an
accounting firm hired by
Aphelion Management to review
prior investment performance
and “caused this report” to be
sent to prospective investors.
The accounting firm became
aware of the misrepresentations
and demanded that Kalucha
cease distributing the altered
report and that he provide
notice to those who received it.
Kalucha incorrectly told the firm
that only one copy of the altered
report had been distributed.
The U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission began an
investigation of Aphelion
Management in January 2014,
including an investigation into
the propriety and reasonable-
ness of payments from Aphelion
Management to Kalucha.
Kalucha provided investigative
testimony before the SEC on
Feb. 25, 2014.
Among other things, he testi-
fied that he had entered into a
written promissory note for
“about $350,000” with Aphelion
Management.
Kalucha later told Palathinkal
that he had testified before the
SEC that there were written
promissory notes covering loans
that the two of them had pur-
portedly taken from Aphelion
Management.
“Knowing that these notes
did not exist, Kalucha told
Palathinkal that he would have
Aphelion Management’s outside
counsel prepare such written
loan documents,” according to a
press note quoting the US
Attorney.
Kalucha and Palathinkal later
signed two such documents,
both said to be promissory
notes. Although these docu-
ments were actually signed in
early March 2014, they were
dated January 1, 2013. Kalucha
and Palathinkal provided these
documents to the SEC.
D.C. Hedge Fund Owner Pleads Guilty To
Obstructing Justice In SEC Investigation
FromNews Dispatches
T
asneem Diwan, a 45 year-
old woman from East
Windsor, New Jersey, was
charged last week with alleged
murder of her 73-year-old moth-
er-in-law on Jan. 26.
The elderly woman, accord-
ing to autopsy reports quoted by
WPVI TV of Philadelphia, was
killed by blunt force trauma to
the head. Her body was found
on the evening of Jan. 26 in her
home on Mozart Court in East
Windsor, New Jersey.
Reports did not say the possi-
ble motive for the murder.
Tasneem Diwan was seen late
Jan. 29 in the bus terminal area
of the Tropicana casino in
Atlantic City, New Jersey where
she was detained by security
officers and Atlantic City police.
She was transported back to
Windsor for investigation by
Mercer County Homicide Task
Force.
Dr. Nauman Diwan, the vic-
tim’s son and the woman’s hus-
band, is a local internist, reports
said. ABC Action News quoted
neighbor Dan McDonough as
saying that he knew that they
are a nice family although he did
not themmuch. Sources told
ABC Action News that Tasneem
Diwan suffers frommental
health issues, something her
neighbors said they were
unaware of.
“Nothing that I saw that
made me think they are any-
thing but a nice, normal
American family living here in
the suburbs,” McDonough was
quoted as saying.
Diwan is charged with one
count of murder, one count of
possession of a weapon for an
unlawful purpose and one count
of unlawful possession of a
weapon.
Reports said Diwan’s bail was
set at $1 million. At press time
no court date has been sched-
uled.
Windsor Woman Charged
With Mother-in-law’s Murder
Bya StaffWriter
A
New Jersey woman
from India, who was
part of a network that
collected money from
unsuspecting people fooled
into believing they owed the
IRS back taxes, was sen-
tenced to three years proba-
tion by a New Jersey superior
court judge last week for
fraudulently netting thou-
sands of dollars from the vic-
tims and money laundering.
Nikita Natvarlal Patel, 25,
will likely be deported for
her role in the IRS scam,
according to North
Jersey.com that reported the
sentencing Jan. 29 by
Superior Court Judge Susan
J. Steele. At least 70 people in
32 states were defrauded by
the scam.
The judge ordered Patel,
who is in the U.S. on an
expired visa, to serve three
years’ probation. Patel
worked as a “runner,” pick-
ing up money sent by people
who thought they owed
money to the IRS back taxes
because of phone calls from
India masquerading as IRS
officials.
Assistant Bergen County
Prosecutor Brian Lynch said
Patel, who acted as a “run-
ner’, meaning that she
picked up money from vic-
tims, would take a cut for
herself and then send the
rest to India from where the
fraudulent phone calls origi-
nated.
Her attorney, Rajinderpal
Singh Sandher said she had
no prior criminal history and
was willing to cooperate with
any further investigation.
Desi Talk had earlier
reported that Patel was
arrested by police in Leonia,
New Jersey, in September
with another runner Akash S.
Patel. The two were not relat-
ed.
Police were tipped off to
the pair’s activities by a caller
from Kentucky, who said he
had been told he owed
$1,400 and that he should
send the money to a
MoneyGram account in the
name of Vincent Arora at a
CVS store in Leonia.
Over the course of the
next two days, Leonia police
said they discovered that
“Vincent Arora” was really
Akash Patel and that he had
made about 30 transactions
in the previous week at
MoneyGram locations across
the state. Police twice
tracked him to stores in
Watchung and Elizabeth, but
each time narrowly missed
him.
After the pickup in
Elizabeth, police there were
able to locate the suspect’s
car and follow it to another
CVS, this time in Union.
Police stopped the car, with
both Patels inside.
Leonia police then took
them into custody, police
said at the time.
The report said that
numerous receipts for
MoneyGram transactions
were found in the car, along
with $9,140. Police later
recovered $10,822 from
Nikita Patel’s apartment in
Iselin. About $150,000 was
also seized from six bank
accounts in the suspects’
names.
The Patels were originally
charged with conspiracy to
commit theft by deception, a
second-degree crime. Nikita
Patel later pleaded guilty to
third-degree money launder-
ing.
Akash Patel, 33, pleaded
guilty to a third-degree theft
charge in November. He was
also sentenced to probation,
according to court records.
Akash Patel, who is a citizen
of India, has since been
deported.
Leonia Police Chief
Thomas P. Rowe had earlier
said that many victims will
be able to recover the money
they lost. “In some
cases, the victims lost
their life savings,” Rowe ear-
lier said, adding that he did
not yet know the total
amount of money the Patels
were able to talk their vic-
tims into sending them, but
“we do know it is more than
we seized,” according to the
northjersey.com report.
A
New Jersey Woman In IRS Phone
Scam Sentenced To Probation
13
News India Times February 12, 2016
