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NRI Pulse
April 2021
Atlanta’s Premier South Asian Newspaper April 2021
GA Man Arrested For Trying To Scam Elderly Woman Of $20,000
Spalding County deputies recently arrested 23-year-old Kuldip Patel from Griffin, Georgia for trying to scam an elderly woman out of thousands of dollars. Patel was arrested following a search warrant carried out at a business and residence. After communicating with investigators in Germantown, Wisconsin, Spalding County investigators determined that the victim had mailed $20,000 in cash to the residence where Patel was arrested, after she fell victim to a phone scam. “During the course of the investigation we were able to recover all of the cash and the packaging material that it was contained in when mailed to the suspect by the victim. We are in the process of returning the cash to her,” Spalding County Sheriff Darrell Dix said. "This victim was very lucky because most scams do not end well for them. It's pathetic that people intentionally target the elderly like this and just view them as easy prey that they can take advantage of," the Sheriff said. Patel is facing charges of theft by taking and theft by deception, both felonies.
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Senate Confirms Murthy As US Surgeon General
New York: (IANS) The US Senate has confirmed Vivek Murthy as the surgeon general, the second time he will be holding the position.
Last month, he became the first Indian American nominee of President Joe Biden to receive Senate approval. Seven Republicans joined the Democrats in the evenly split Senate to confirm him, despite the opposition from the bulk of Republican senators because he has called gun violence a “public health crisis” and called for restrictions on gun ownership. The Senate confirmation of the strict gun control advocate came a day after a mass shooting in Boulder, Colorado state, in which ten people were killed, and another a week ago in Atlanta that claimed eight lives. He received six more votes this time than the minimal 51 he received in 2014 when former President Barack Obama appointed him to the post. A Democrat Senator, Joe Manchin, who had voted against him 2014, backed him saying, “Murthy has confirmed his commitment to remaining non-partisan as surgeon general and reaffirmed his belief that the vast majority of gun-owning Americans are responsible and follow the law. Murthy worked with President Joe Biden’s campaign as a health policy adviser and was the co-chair of his COVID-19 advisory board during the transition helping prepare his administration
to deal with the pandemic. Former President Donald Trump had fired Murthy when he took over and Biden is making a point by restoring him to the same position. The surgeon general is the head of the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps made up of over 6,000 uniformed medical officers. The surgeon general is not a member of the cabinet and works under the secretary of health and human services, but has the rank of a vice admiral and wears the uniform with the insignia of the rank. The position, called the “Nation’s Doctor” is more of an advisory one with the added task of being an evangelist for health with the regalia of the office. Media reports have said that Biden may ex-
pand Murthy’s role. After he was fired by Trump, Murthy worked as a consultant to several companies including Nextflix and his financial disclosure document showed that he had collected $1.7 million in fees. Murthy’s passage through Senate is in contrast to that of two other Indian American nominees. Neera Tanden, who was nominated to the cabinet position of director of the Office of Management and Budget, had to withdraw when she was opposed by even senators of the Democratic Party because of her intemperate tweets attacking several politicians personally and getting into a physical altercation with Faiz Shakir, a Pakistani American who was the presidential campaign manager for Senator Bernie Sanders, a key member of one of the Senate panels that would have had to approve her nomination. The confirmation of another Indian American, Vanita Gupta is hanging in the balance for supporting the campaign to cut funding for police departments and also because of her tweets attacking Republican leaders. Nominated to be associate attorney general, she faced a hearing by the Senate Judiciary Committee at which she expressed remorse for her tweets and backed down on defunding police. Republicans on the Judiciary Committee have asked for a second round of hearings with her to get her to clarify her views on police funding.
Indian Operators Providing Hawala Money To Cartels Hunted By US Sleuths New York/New Delhi: Controversial Bollywood actress Mamata Kulkarni’s husband Vicky Goswami extradited by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), leaves a trail of several drug traffickers from the Indian sub-continent which are presently wanted by Washington. While Goswami is jailed in New York, three Indians, reportedly operating from British Columbia in Canada, figure on the list of the DEA’s most wanted fugitives. Top DEA sleuths are reportedly hunting for Bakshish Singh, a key money launderer linked with the dreaded Sinaloa drug cartel of Mexico. As per DEA reports, Bakshish was earlier working for international hawala ring leader Gurkaran Singh, a Canadian national of Indian origin. Gurkaran was arrested by the DEA a few years ago in Los Angeles on charges of providing millions of dollars to the Sinaloa drug cartel. Sources in Indian agencies revealed that Bakshish Singh and
his two aides, Balwant Rai Bhola and Sanjeev Bhola, could be hiding in Canada or Punjab. The DEA’s wanted list also names Balwant and Sanjeev Bhola as members of the international hawala ring allegedly working at the behest of Mexican drug cartels. Along with Bakshish, both Sanjeev and Balwant are charged for “conspiracy to launder money”. According to a DEA report, Bakshish Singh’s last known address was located in Surrey, a city in British Columbia. Several Indian-origin drug traffickers have been earlier operating from Surrey, which is apart of the metro Vancouver area and touches the US
border. Sources said that Bakshish might have escaped to India and could be living under fake identity. Bakshish, born in the 1970s, was not the only one from India to facilitate funds for the Sinaloa cartel. In 2018, two Indians, Manu Gupta and Mohammed Sadik were arrested by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) from Indore for supplying drugs to one Jorge Solis, member of the Sinaloa cartel. The DRI had recovered 10 kg of drugs from the possession of Solis and Gupta which was priced over Rs 100 crore in the international market. Gupta was later found to be working for
the Sinaloa drug cartel for the past several years. Sinaloa is a sovereign state within Mexico facing the Gulf of California. The strategic location of Sinaloa and political patronization, gives the drug cartel a safe haven to operate their international drug racket from this state. The DEA has earlier unearthed another big time drug cartel involving Vicky Goswami, a former aide of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. The DEA had also tipped Indian agencies about a pharmaceutical company allegedly operating from India, where drugs like mandrax and ephedrine were being manufactured. The pharma company having linkages with alleged drug traffickers was later sealed by the police. The investigation report filed by DEA in the US District Court, Southern District of New York on July 25, 2019, had revealed the name of D-company aide Goswami and Ali Punjani, former husband of another Bollywood star Kim Sharma.