Not US treasury bond but Bill of Exchange says I-T investigator

Chennai:

It is not US bonds but bill of exchange issued by Brazilian exchange, said a top Income Tax official investigating the Rs 26,000 crore worth papers found at the house of stock broker and copra and groundnuts dealer Ramalingam.

Although the veracity of the bill of exchange has yet to be established, additional director general of Income Tax (investigations) S Murli Mohan said adding that it would take atleast a week to ascertain their genuineness.

He said the so claimed US treasury bonds are not bonds but bill of exchange. “The five papers which are international bills have been seized and each is worth dollar one billion. Ramalingam claims he got the bills by exchanging it with gold bonds through a Brazilian person,” said Mohan. A bill of exchange is similar to a banking draft between individuals or institutions.

Mohan said the Ramalingam has been giving different versions and his claims that he got it from a Brazilian for exchange of gold is being verified.

He also said that the department has not received any confirmation from any of the US agencies and it would probably receive next week.
The bills were issued on February 25, 2011 and were due to mature in February 2015.  Ramalingam had applied for a licence to set up refinery with the money.  Interestingly, Ramalingam has not filed his income tax returns for the last four years neither disclosed his wealth.
Mohan said Income Tax officials have also recovered some fixed deposit documents from a bank locker of Ramalingam.

Earlier, Ramalingam along with his advocate Ilango appeared at the office after 9.30 am. His advocate Ilango said the investigation began at around 11.45 am. Interestingly, Ilango was not allowed to accompany Ramalingam during the investigation.

The investigation went non-stop and media was denied entry into the building. His advocate said that Ramalingam was kept confined into the conference room where food and other items were provided to him. It was only around 7.15 pm that Mohan appeared before media denying the existence of US treasury bonds and said that they were bill of exchange.