IRG : '500,000'$ already handed over to HK and rest to be 'negotiated'


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> From: COM: Hari Sauri (das) ACBSP <Hari.Sauri.ACBSP@com.bbt.se>
> Subject: Fw: Harikesha das
> Date: Tuesday, September 01, 1998 1:30 PM
>
> [Text 1652205 from COM]

Just a brief message to inquire from you, as you appear to be in the forefront of the problem's with Harikesha, did the GBC recently agree to release a very large amount of Lakshmi to him ? There are rumours flying about all over the place.

Dear prabhu,
Please accept my humble respects. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

There was a dispute over several million dollars in the Visva Toshani fund. HK claimed it was his, part of some private business he was running and made threats to Brahmamuhurta that if he didn't send the entire amount to him he would expose some wrong doings in ISKCON and the BBT and send BMd to jail for 5 years. BMd pointed out that HK himself would go to jail too if that happened.

The Russians had also made threats to **** and ********* that the money was actually theirs (it originally came from Prema Invest in Russia) and if it was not given back to them they would make life hell for them and their families.

In preliminary negotiations between HK and ***** and co. it turned out $1.4m was actually Moscow BBT money and HK agreed it should be given back to them. He also agreed that a further $600,000 be used to pay off VT's existing liabilities. And he wrote off some $2.5m in outstanding loans given to ISKCON temples. Still there was $1.5m that he was claiming. He had already been given $500,000 in the form of a couple of vehicles and some cash.

Some say that you were recently attacked, under orders from Harikesha. Is this true ? Surely we are not going to allow him to blackmail Srila Prabhupada's movement. I know you must be busy, but could you kindly let me know what is the truth in all this.

To save these men from further threats and to protect the money Naresvara stepped in as a negotiator. They were all taken off the VT accounts and it was put under someone else's control (can't say who). Naresvara and myself went to see HK last Thurs. evening, meeting at a hotel where the main Russian dissidents were staying. When he realized he wasn't going to get the money by the deadline he had demanded (Aug. 26) he became furious and stormed off. He jumped in his car and yelled to Brahmananda Puri (the main Russian mafioso who runs Prema Invest) "They are cheating me!
They are not giving me my money. Stop them!"

Me and Nares had already gotten into Nares. car and tried to drive out but B.Puri stood in front of us and blocked us while he called his friends down from the hotel room. Meanwhile HK parked his car sideways across the driveway to stop us getting out. He looked angrily on while about 5 Russians gathered around Nares.'s window. We locked the doors and Nares. opened his window about an inch and half and we talked. B. Puri told us the money was his, and if it was not given to HK he would kill us all. He said he would get the Mafia and all of us would be killed.

Sannyas was a bit more reasonable and tried to get us to come up to their room to talk. We refused and told him we wouldn't talk while B. Puri was present. After 10 minutes HK saw that nothing was going to happen and suddenly drove out and went off on his own. I don't think that he was within hearshot when B. Puri made the death threats.

After another 5 minutes we told Sannyas we would talk to him in the morning and they let us go. Naresvara spent the night in a hotel and I stayed at the Abenteurer temple.

Sannyas did come to see me the next morning and we talked for about half an hour. He is actually a nice person but caught up with his loyalties to HK. He tried to say that the money was given to HK personally and was not ISKCON's. Our argument was that HK made threats against ISKCON and the BBT and there had to be an agreement reached before he could be given anything.
I got Sannyas to ring Naresvara who was already in his car on the way to the airport. They talked along the same lines and the conclusion was that HK should wait till after his 2 week holiday and then they would negotiate but this was not a good time right now.