*LOTUS (Fiji), the company in which he has 50% shares, illegally paid his Capital Gains Tax when the couple (Biman Chand Prasad and Rajni Kaushal Chand - Vendors) sold their 'Burerua St Property' in Suva to Lotus (Fiji) in 2016 for $550,000.
*What about his wife Rajni, for if a capital asset is jointly owned by two or more persons, any capital gain made on disposal of the asset must be apportioned among the owners according to their respective interests in the asset.
*We call on Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka to SACK Biman Prasad as Finance Minister and line manager of Fiji Revenue and Collection Services (FRCS) and order a full audit of the tax affairs of Biman Prasad, Rajni Kaushal Chand, Lotus Construction (Fiji) Ltd and the co-director Sunil Chand.
*FICAC must take Biman Prasad into custody and charge him for the multiple breaches in his statutory declarations under the Political Parties Act.
*The charges are NOT BASELESS despite his 'panni-wallah' lawyer(s) informing FICAC. In fact, these lawyers must be charged for attempting to pervert the cause of justice unless Biman Prasad never revealed his shenanigans' at Lotus (Fiji).
Lotus (Fiji) pays FRCS Biman Prasad's Capital Gains Tax, 11 March 2016
Fijileaks: We have redacted a few details but will reveal in full at a later date.
TRADING VILLAS: LOTUS (Fiji) gave Rajni Chand Two Units (9 and 11) in exchange when the couple sold 'Burerua' to Lotus (Fiji) for $550,000 and allegedly cleared Biman Prasad's outstanding ANZ Bank Loan, and also paid on his behalf the Capital Gains Tax. FULL STORY in another instalment. Biman Prasad did not declare in his statutory declarations from 2016 to 2024 that his wife owns TWO UNITS in Westfield Villas.
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The Burerua Street property owned by Biman Prasad and his wife Rajni Chand
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By VICTOR LAL
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Fijileaks to FICAC and Stiveni Rabuka: Biman Prasad MUST be CHARGED, and SACKED from Coalition government as Fiji's Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister.
*In the course of our expose, we will reveal, backed by incontrovertible evidence from inside the vaults of FRCS, how Lotus (Fiji), the company in which he has 50% shares, illegally paid his Capital Gains Tax, when the couple (Biman Chand Prasad and Rajni Kaushal Chand) sold their 'Burerua Property' to Lotus (Fiji) in 2016 for $550,000.
*For three years, Prasad lied in his statutory declarations (2014, 2015, and 2016) that he was the sole owner of 'Burerua Property'.
*FIJI, we will reveal the revenue loss to FRCS when he was gifted 5% +45%=50% shares in Lotus (Fiji) without having contributed a cent. We will reveal how investors who were allegedly duped into buying units in the 'Westfield Villa Project' have been evicted by Lotus (Fiji) without any compensation. We will reveal how Lotus (Fiji), having failed to provide sub-leases to the Australian investors (mostly Indo-Fijians), has been repeatedly blaming the I-Taukei Land Trust Board for not providing Lotus (Fiji) the 'STRATA TITLE'.
*We will reveal how Biman Prasad has NOT disclosed in his statutory declarations that his wife Rajni owns TWO UNITS at 'Westfield Villas' at Legalega, Nadi, in part-exchange for selling to Lotus (Fiji), with her husband, the 'Burerua Property' for $550,000.
*We have calculated that FRCS has been allegedly short-changed $830,000 in taxes.
*We will reveal more, Fiji, and call for the RFMF to take PRASAD into custody if the Coalition government and FICAC Commissioner continue to protect him.
LOTUS CONSTRUCTION (Fiji) Ltd: Biman Prasad's Journey With Lotus
On 25 January 2008, one SUNIL CHAND, director of Lotus Construction Pty Ltd (Australian registered private company) residing in Sydney, bought a piece of land in Legalega, Nadi, from the Legalega Development Limited (LDL). It obtained the land on 21 September 2007. The LDL was registered on 9 August 2000 with the place of business as Lot 2, Nokonoko Rd, Laucala Beach Estate, Nasinu, by Dynex Holdings Pte Ltd, the ultimate holding company. Dynex was registered on 11 February 2000 by Umendra Kumar, 13 Pathik Crescent, Namadi Heights, Suva, and Parveen Prakash, Lot 2, Nokonoko Rd, Nasinu. Kumar and Prakash were the two directors. Legalega Development transferred the land to Sunil Chand on 25 January 2008, who registered it with the Registrar of Titles on 11 November 2014 (issued on 27 January 2015), mortgaging it with ANZ Bank on 12 February 2015. As we will see later, Sunil Chand entered into a lease agreement with the Itaukei Land Trust Board (ILTB).
Sunil is the first cousin of NFP leader and Fiji’s Finance Minister BIMAN PRASAD. We will refer to the two by their first names throughout this investigation. Both were born in Labasa, with Sunil moving to Australia, where he obtained a builder’s certificate after enrolling in TAFE NSW. Sunil initially entered the building construction business as a sole trader and, on 2 April 2002, registered Lotus Construction (Australia) Ltd, ABN 39 098 314 080. In one building tribunal case brought against him by his clients, he claimed he was a carpenter in Fiji before moving to Australia.
Although it is not apparent when Sunil and Biman got the idea to form Lotus Construction (Fiji) Ltd, whether over hot chilly lamb chop curry and rice, they registered the company on 15 March 2014 with the Registrar of Companies in Suva. APNR Partners, Business Consultants & Chartered Accountants, Suva, presented the Memorandum of Association (MOA) & Articles of Association (AOA) of Lotus Construction (Fiji) Ltd. Sunil and Biman’s nephew Krishil Kumar, an active employee of the HFC bank, witnessed the MOA and AOA signatures of his uncles Biman Chand Prasad and Sunil Chand. The two Directors of Lotus (Fiji) were Biman and Sunil.
The two company directors disclosed the following number of shares in Lotus (Fiji): Biman Chand Prasad (5) Five and Sunil Chand (95) Ninety-Five. There is no evidence of what consideration Biman provided for the 5% shares or whether it was a gift from Sunil. His statutory declarations from 2014-2024 are silent on the matter. If the shares were a gift, Biman must disclose them to the Supervisor of Elections under the Political Parties Act 2013.
On or about 28 January 2015 (crossed out and reads 28th day of January 2016), Sunil entered into a commercial lease agreement with the ILTB in consideration of $80,000 for the land Legalega (part of) on SO 5571 on Lot 1 in the tikina of Nadi, and in the province of Ba, with an area of 5521m2. The mataqai Vunaivi Tokatoka Nadrau are the landowning unit. The lease is from the first day of July 2015 for 99 years, with the lessee (Sunil) paying to the lessor (ILTB) ‘the yearly rent of Two Thousand Dollars ($2,000) half yearly in advance on the first days of January and July in every year subject to reassessment as hereinafter provided’.
On 5 February 2016, the Registrar of Titles affixed signature cites the iTaukei Lease No 32593 to Sunil Chand. However, the ILTB categorically stated that the land in question was to be used only for the erection of Residential accommodations and their subsequent use for Commercial purposes.
Chasing Investors in Australia.
As we pointed out in our 6 September posting, ‘Lotus (Fiji) sold Nirvana Villas to Investors’, Lotus (Fiji) drew up a ‘Development Proposal and Concept Plan for Lot 1, Westfield Sub-Division, NLTB 8/10/45 and began seeking for investors. It targeted former Indo-Fijians living in Australia, convincing them that the two-bedroom units were ideal as holiday homes. It was a relatively easy concept for investors looking for a lifestyle purchase to share their lives with friends and family back in Fiji. Later, Sunil informed the Fiji media: ‘The villas are targeted at former residents who wish to return to Fiji, those who want to own a holiday house, and those who want to retire in Fiji. The villas are in a prime location, built on native land in the Westfield. We will sell the villas for about $200,000, and offers are coming in slowly. Some people have already booked their villa and made their deposit.’
Biman bought two units of Off-The-Plan, but there is no proof that he paid for the two units (10 and 11) as a five per cent shareholder in the company. He did not declare in his statutory declarations that he owned two villa units.
Property investors or property speculators often purchase off-the-plan property intending to make substantial capital gains. Lotus (Fiji) told prospective Indo-Fijian investors that the Concept Plan's purpose was ‘to request TLTB to issue One Head Lease and 30 sub-leases to the owners of 30 Villas constructed on i-Taukei land’.
Suresh Chandra of MC Lawyers drew up the Off-The-Plan Sale and Purchase Agreement. He is the former Fiji Electoral Commission chair and disgraced lawyer who was not long ago disbarred from practising after being found guilty of defrauding his trust account clients of over $2 million in unrecorded money.
The Sale Agreement was between Sunil Chand (Vendor) and the Purchaser(s). The Lot was 42 square meters of land. It was to be delivered to the purchaser as a sub-lease of native land, being the subject, however, to such encumbrances, liens, and interest implied in leases under the Property Law Act of Fiji.
*Purchase price (exclusive of value tax) was $150,000.
*Deposit - 10% of the purchase price - $15,000.
* Balance of Purchase Price—40 % close up (slab, external walls, and roofs). $60,000.
*And 50% on completion (handover) - $75,000.
Total: $150,000.
The investors signed contracts with Sunil between February and April 2014. Most were Indo-Fijians living in Australia, with three residing in Fiji, including Biman Chand Prasad. As we pointed out, Biman bought the two units off-the-plan on 12 March 2014. Three days later, on 15 March, Biman and Sunil registered Lotus Construction (Fiji) Ltd. Biman was gifted a five per cent share of the company. Yet, in his statutory declarations, for 2014 and 2015, he vaguely stated that he owned $85,000 worth of shares, and in subsequent declarations claimed, ‘one-third share in 1 company and 50% share in another’. It fell on Fijileaks to unravel the identities of his shares in the companies, and also to reveal that he totally omitted to disclose that he was a 30% shareholder in Platinum Hotels & Resorts Ltd, a company that had contributed over $2 million towards the construction of the 'Westfield Villas' at Legalega, Nadi.
Sunil and an investor signed the first sale and purchase agreement on 17 November 2013, the rest on 24-26 February 2014, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th, 12th March, and two on 13-14 April 2014. A total of 18 investors signed up to purchase the Westfield Villas, with Lotus (Fiji) obtaining $1.5 million from them. Sunil collected the deposits and progress payments in Australia and Fiji.
Sunil’s tax returns and Lotus’s income tax returns for the financial years 2014 to 2017 do not show any income received from the sale of units to Australian investors. It is normally expected that a company or an individual (an entity) selling real estate would hold the deposits in the solicitor’s trust account and cannot access the funds until settlement is complete. A Nadi law firm were the solicitors for Sunil and Lotus. We are yet to collect evidence from the solicitors the basis on which the funds held were released to Sunil and Lotus before settlement. Also, the funds collected by Sunil directly from the Australian investors were deposited in the Solicitors Trust Account.
Furthermore, the income from sale of a property by a developer is recorded as income, either on an accrual or cash basis, and is considered assessable income for tax purposes for the developer in the relevant year. Accrual income is record when an invoice or a notice of payment request has been sent to the payee and cash income is recorded when cash physically received. Lotus (Fiji) should have reported income from the investors as cash or accrual. However, Fijileaks needs to establish the income that Lotus (Fiji) or Sunil recorded in their financials and tax returns from 2014 to 2017.
We wonder if Biman and Sunil had ever reported this money received to FRCA, currently led by the New Zealander ‘doodwallah-soodoowallah’ Udit Singh.
Hence began the construction of 28-unit two-bedroom villas at Legalega, with Sunil Chand on completion in 2015, claiming it cost him (omitting to mention Biman) $4 million.
Fijileaks investigation suggests the total cost was around $6.5million.
Next instalment: The truth behind the total cost and the financiers behind ‘Westfield Villas’. Biman Chand Prasad did not contribute a single cent to the ‘$4 million villa project’. And he ended up holding 50 per cent shares in Lotus (Fiji) Ltd.
Sunil is the first cousin of NFP leader and Fiji’s Finance Minister BIMAN PRASAD. We will refer to the two by their first names throughout this investigation. Both were born in Labasa, with Sunil moving to Australia, where he obtained a builder’s certificate after enrolling in TAFE NSW. Sunil initially entered the building construction business as a sole trader and, on 2 April 2002, registered Lotus Construction (Australia) Ltd, ABN 39 098 314 080. In one building tribunal case brought against him by his clients, he claimed he was a carpenter in Fiji before moving to Australia.
Although it is not apparent when Sunil and Biman got the idea to form Lotus Construction (Fiji) Ltd, whether over hot chilly lamb chop curry and rice, they registered the company on 15 March 2014 with the Registrar of Companies in Suva. APNR Partners, Business Consultants & Chartered Accountants, Suva, presented the Memorandum of Association (MOA) & Articles of Association (AOA) of Lotus Construction (Fiji) Ltd. Sunil and Biman’s nephew Krishil Kumar, an active employee of the HFC bank, witnessed the MOA and AOA signatures of his uncles Biman Chand Prasad and Sunil Chand. The two Directors of Lotus (Fiji) were Biman and Sunil.
The two company directors disclosed the following number of shares in Lotus (Fiji): Biman Chand Prasad (5) Five and Sunil Chand (95) Ninety-Five. There is no evidence of what consideration Biman provided for the 5% shares or whether it was a gift from Sunil. His statutory declarations from 2014-2024 are silent on the matter. If the shares were a gift, Biman must disclose them to the Supervisor of Elections under the Political Parties Act 2013.
On or about 28 January 2015 (crossed out and reads 28th day of January 2016), Sunil entered into a commercial lease agreement with the ILTB in consideration of $80,000 for the land Legalega (part of) on SO 5571 on Lot 1 in the tikina of Nadi, and in the province of Ba, with an area of 5521m2. The mataqai Vunaivi Tokatoka Nadrau are the landowning unit. The lease is from the first day of July 2015 for 99 years, with the lessee (Sunil) paying to the lessor (ILTB) ‘the yearly rent of Two Thousand Dollars ($2,000) half yearly in advance on the first days of January and July in every year subject to reassessment as hereinafter provided’.
On 5 February 2016, the Registrar of Titles affixed signature cites the iTaukei Lease No 32593 to Sunil Chand. However, the ILTB categorically stated that the land in question was to be used only for the erection of Residential accommodations and their subsequent use for Commercial purposes.
Chasing Investors in Australia.
As we pointed out in our 6 September posting, ‘Lotus (Fiji) sold Nirvana Villas to Investors’, Lotus (Fiji) drew up a ‘Development Proposal and Concept Plan for Lot 1, Westfield Sub-Division, NLTB 8/10/45 and began seeking for investors. It targeted former Indo-Fijians living in Australia, convincing them that the two-bedroom units were ideal as holiday homes. It was a relatively easy concept for investors looking for a lifestyle purchase to share their lives with friends and family back in Fiji. Later, Sunil informed the Fiji media: ‘The villas are targeted at former residents who wish to return to Fiji, those who want to own a holiday house, and those who want to retire in Fiji. The villas are in a prime location, built on native land in the Westfield. We will sell the villas for about $200,000, and offers are coming in slowly. Some people have already booked their villa and made their deposit.’
Biman bought two units of Off-The-Plan, but there is no proof that he paid for the two units (10 and 11) as a five per cent shareholder in the company. He did not declare in his statutory declarations that he owned two villa units.
Property investors or property speculators often purchase off-the-plan property intending to make substantial capital gains. Lotus (Fiji) told prospective Indo-Fijian investors that the Concept Plan's purpose was ‘to request TLTB to issue One Head Lease and 30 sub-leases to the owners of 30 Villas constructed on i-Taukei land’.
Suresh Chandra of MC Lawyers drew up the Off-The-Plan Sale and Purchase Agreement. He is the former Fiji Electoral Commission chair and disgraced lawyer who was not long ago disbarred from practising after being found guilty of defrauding his trust account clients of over $2 million in unrecorded money.
The Sale Agreement was between Sunil Chand (Vendor) and the Purchaser(s). The Lot was 42 square meters of land. It was to be delivered to the purchaser as a sub-lease of native land, being the subject, however, to such encumbrances, liens, and interest implied in leases under the Property Law Act of Fiji.
*Purchase price (exclusive of value tax) was $150,000.
*Deposit - 10% of the purchase price - $15,000.
* Balance of Purchase Price—40 % close up (slab, external walls, and roofs). $60,000.
*And 50% on completion (handover) - $75,000.
Total: $150,000.
The investors signed contracts with Sunil between February and April 2014. Most were Indo-Fijians living in Australia, with three residing in Fiji, including Biman Chand Prasad. As we pointed out, Biman bought the two units off-the-plan on 12 March 2014. Three days later, on 15 March, Biman and Sunil registered Lotus Construction (Fiji) Ltd. Biman was gifted a five per cent share of the company. Yet, in his statutory declarations, for 2014 and 2015, he vaguely stated that he owned $85,000 worth of shares, and in subsequent declarations claimed, ‘one-third share in 1 company and 50% share in another’. It fell on Fijileaks to unravel the identities of his shares in the companies, and also to reveal that he totally omitted to disclose that he was a 30% shareholder in Platinum Hotels & Resorts Ltd, a company that had contributed over $2 million towards the construction of the 'Westfield Villas' at Legalega, Nadi.
Sunil and an investor signed the first sale and purchase agreement on 17 November 2013, the rest on 24-26 February 2014, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th, 12th March, and two on 13-14 April 2014. A total of 18 investors signed up to purchase the Westfield Villas, with Lotus (Fiji) obtaining $1.5 million from them. Sunil collected the deposits and progress payments in Australia and Fiji.
Sunil’s tax returns and Lotus’s income tax returns for the financial years 2014 to 2017 do not show any income received from the sale of units to Australian investors. It is normally expected that a company or an individual (an entity) selling real estate would hold the deposits in the solicitor’s trust account and cannot access the funds until settlement is complete. A Nadi law firm were the solicitors for Sunil and Lotus. We are yet to collect evidence from the solicitors the basis on which the funds held were released to Sunil and Lotus before settlement. Also, the funds collected by Sunil directly from the Australian investors were deposited in the Solicitors Trust Account.
Furthermore, the income from sale of a property by a developer is recorded as income, either on an accrual or cash basis, and is considered assessable income for tax purposes for the developer in the relevant year. Accrual income is record when an invoice or a notice of payment request has been sent to the payee and cash income is recorded when cash physically received. Lotus (Fiji) should have reported income from the investors as cash or accrual. However, Fijileaks needs to establish the income that Lotus (Fiji) or Sunil recorded in their financials and tax returns from 2014 to 2017.
We wonder if Biman and Sunil had ever reported this money received to FRCA, currently led by the New Zealander ‘doodwallah-soodoowallah’ Udit Singh.
Hence began the construction of 28-unit two-bedroom villas at Legalega, with Sunil Chand on completion in 2015, claiming it cost him (omitting to mention Biman) $4 million.
Fijileaks investigation suggests the total cost was around $6.5million.
Next instalment: The truth behind the total cost and the financiers behind ‘Westfield Villas’. Biman Chand Prasad did not contribute a single cent to the ‘$4 million villa project’. And he ended up holding 50 per cent shares in Lotus (Fiji) Ltd.
COMING SOON: How Lotus (Fiji) Ltd owned by Biman Prasad and Sunil Chand demolished 'Burerua Property' in 2017 after buying it off the couple (Biman and Rajni) and are building 14 FLATS on the site
The original house has been demolished with plans to build 14 FLATS
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From Fijileaks Archive 26 August 2024
Fijilleaks: We also call on Coalition government to review the appointment of Biman Prasad's NZ buddy Udit Singh as FRCS CEO. Although Singh was not at FRCS in 2006 when Lotus (Fiji) paid Biman Prasad's Capital Gains Tax, he must be asked to step down for FRCS auditors to carry out a thorough audit of the tax affairs of Prasad, Rajni Chand, Sunil Chand, and Lotus (Fiji) Ltd
FRCS CEO UDIT SINGH
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