Updated: September 23, 2020 7:03:04 am
The data shows that artifact transactions and stolen transactions continued years after the alleged kingpin’s arrest.
Financial Crimes Enforcement Network data (FinCEN), the US regulatory agency for enforcing money laundering laws, provide a glimpse into the network of companies and individuals who trade with antiquities smuggler Subhash Kapoor, now in a Tamil Nadu jail .
The data shows that artifact transactions and stolen transactions continued years after the alleged kingpin’s arrest.
Kapoor was one of 17 subjects in a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) filed on March 20, 2017 by Standard Chartered Bank, New York, “for obtaining millions of dollars in trafficking in artifacts looted from international smugglers and selling them illegally. ”.
Transactions for $ 27.88 million were made between March 2010 and March 2017. The SAR noted: “Art is used as a money laundering vehicle and is a red flag commonly used to hide cash.”
the FinCEN files have been investigated by The Indian Express in collaboration with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, BuzzFeed News, and 108 media partners on bank compliance and anti-money laundering systems around the world.
Kapoor, 71, is in Trichy Central Jail for smuggling idols from Tamil Nadu temples. He also faces charges in the United States for smuggling idols and artifacts from Asian countries. He was arrested on October 30, 2011 in Frankfurt and extradited to India in July 2012.
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A complaint filed in July 2019 in Criminal Court in New York by the US Department of Homeland Security stated that “the total value of stolen antiquities known to have been trafficked by Kapoor exceeds $ 145.71 millions”.
For 30 years, Kapoor is suspected of trafficking thousands of antiquities, including statues and paintings, most of which are now believed to be stolen artifacts, and 2,622 of them were seized, according to the complaint.
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A Kapoor broker, according to the complaint, entered Afghanistan during the country’s civil war in the 1990s and bribed a Mujahideen commander to access an archaeological site. The settlement allegedly yielded two stucco Buddha heads dating back to the Gandhara civilization.
In Tamil Nadu, he faces two robbery cases involving 28 idols. He is being investigated by the Idol Wing CID of the Tamil Nadu Police. The cases relate to the theft of idols from the Sundareswarar temple and the Varadaraja Perumal temple in Ariyalur district in April 2008, and from the Arulmigu Pragatheeswarar temple in the same district.
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These are some of the idol theft cases that are taking place in the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate’s court in Kumbakonam in Thanjavur district.
In October 2013, two years after Kapoor’s arrest, his sister Sushma Sareen was also arrested, allegedly for hiding stolen idols worth more than $ 14 million. The FBI conducted multiple raids in March 2016 under an operation codenamed Hidden Idol.
Nancy Wiener, owner of the Nancy Wiener Gallery in New York and allegedly aided Kapoor in smuggling antiquities, was also arrested in December 2016 on a similar charge. Sushma and Nancy are currently out on bail.
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On December 21, 2016, a complaint filed with a criminal court in New York stated: “Between at least 1999 and 2016, with the intent that the conduct constituted the crimes,” Nancy Wiener used her company Nancy Wiener Gallery “to purchase , smuggle, launder and sell millions of dollars in stolen antiquities from countries like India through some auction houses.
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The SAR listed the entities with which Kapoor and its business allies did business. Most of the bank transfers mentioned in the SAR were made through Standard Chartered Bank branch accounts in different countries.
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