After being targeted for opening a company in Cayman Islands through which funds were allegedly invested in India in 2016-17, Vivek Doval, son of India's National Security Advisor Ajit Doval rebutted all allegations. Vivek filed a criminal defamation complaint on Monday against a news magazine and Congress leader Jairam Ramesh for defaming him.
Speaking exclusively to the DNA, Vivek bared all facts in defence of his innocence and family honour. "Through me they have attacked my father who is a true patriot and my hero. I know I am made a soft target of such vindictive, malicious allegations but I will prove I did nothing wrong. I will establish the truth and this alone can redeem the pain caused to my father and family," he said.
Vivek and his friend Amit Sharma officially registered their company, GNY Asia at Cayman Islands on November 21, 2016. "The idea of GNY Asia was born in October 2013 when I and Amit set up our company Vivam Hold Co Ltd. Having established a 15-year practice in managing funds and investments in global corporate houses, we shared a common dream to set up our own funds. In November 2015, we searched for service providers for our company and the registration process for GNY Asia at Caymans took four months (August-November 2016)," said Vivek.
On the allegation that his venture was linked to his brother Shaurya's business, Vivek emphatically denied saying, "GNY Asia fund was a new business and since we had limited resources, our company used my brother Shaurya's Zeus Capital that provided office space and services of two persons to do research. GNY Asia paid Zeus approximately Rs 1.60 lakh per month towards office rent and salaries of the two employees. The service contract between the two companies can be seen as evidence."
Responding to charges that GNY had Arab investors and was linked to the House of Saud, Vivek said, "There are no Saudi or Arab investors." His defamation complaint is a tell-all tale about the six investors and the amount they pooled in. A total of 11.1 million USD (Rs 77 crore) was the start-up capital of the firm of which Rs 15 crore was invested in India before the company decided to close operations in August 2017. The lion's share was invested by one Doha-based Mohammad Altaf and his family. He is of Indian origin working with LuLu international retail group and had invested 10.1 million USD in the company.
Vivek said, "There is nothing illegal or unethical in dealing with Saudis or Saudi Arabia. But we did not receive any seed capital from Middle East." But why register at Cayman, Vivek replied, "Cayman is home to 11,000 hedge funds across the globe, and for start-ups like us, this place provides a good ecosystem of service providers (chartered accountants, lawyers, bankers, etc)." The company underwent a rigorous five-level check by their bankers and even the funds got audited by Price WaterHouse Coopers.
