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The
process of promoting Prem Rawat requires not
only the presentation of Prem Rawat in a positive light, it also requires
that negative images of Prem Rawat arising out of dubious activities and judgements
from the past to be remodelled and recast.
The organisations supporting Prem Rawat do
not rely upon simple public relations 'spin' to ensure a remodelling of this
negative past, but actively pursue structural and financial revisionism to
disguise potentially embarrassing details. The history of Myrine Investment
Ltd is a prime example of the Fiscal Revisionism practiced in the name of
Prem Rawat.
MYRINE
INVESTMENTS LTD
Myrine
Investments Ltd was first registered in the tax haven of Jersey, CI, UK. in
1981; the details given in the Jersey register are:
Registration Number: 22632
Registered Business Office: 22 Grenville Street, St. Helier, JE4 8PX
Date Registered: 23 Dec 1981
Shares in
Myrine were held in 2003 by two companies, both also listed at 22 Grenville
Street, St. Helier, these were Juris Limited, Reg. No. 24294 and Lively
Limited, Reg. No. 3719, the total share holding was 5,000,000 listed at
par value, no indication is given to what realisable asset value these
5,000,000 shares represented. Juris Ltd was created in 1982 and held just
60,000 shares, Lively Ltd was created in 1969 and its pre dating of Rawat's
European activities suggests that it is a company offering a share holding
service.
In mid
2005 Elan Vital
Incorporated (Australia) published, in the form of
Frequently Asked Questions, a number of statements on its website;
these statements were apparently (unacknowledged) responses to various
claims and criticisms regarding the role of Myrine Investments Ltd in the
Amaroo/Ivory's Rock
Conference Centre development.
The
Criticisms
Appearing
on the Ex Premie website
and on Internet forums the claims and criticisms that surrounded Myrine
Investments can be summarised as:
1. Myrine
Investments Ltd was created to hold assets in beneficial interest for Prem
Pal Singh Rawat.
2. Myrine
Investments Ltd was created to facilitate tax avoidance.
3. Myrine
Investments Ltd was created to disguise the personal ownerships of Prem
Rawat.
4. Myrine
Investments Ltd operated to obscure Prem Rawat's personal enrichment from
the Amaroo (Australia) development and to disguise the conflict of interest
this caused to the non profit Elan Vital Inc.
The
Amaroo Development
Amaroo is a $20 million
plus development on what was previously farmland, near to the town of
Ipswich, Queensland, Australia. The development has seen the creation of a
Conference Centre, the company pursuing the development and operating the
Centre is called Ivory's Rock Conference Centre Ltd, IRCC Ltd is owned by
Elan Vital Incorporated via an
intermediary called Jeeps Nominees. The land on
which the development has taken place was bought by and remains in the
ownership of Myrine Investments Ltd.
THE
ELAN VITAL REBUTTAL
The Elan
Vital Myrine FAQs comprise a 'rebuttal' to the various criticisms that
have appeared on the Internet, central to this rebuttal is false history
which presents Myrine Investments Ltd current status as having been
unaltered from its creation.
The
creation of Myrine Investments Ltd in 1981 was ten years before the Amaroo
project had begun and its original purpose remains obscured. Elan Vital says
in answer to its FAQ Where did the funds come from to purchase the
IRCC properties?
"The
funds came from contributions and loans from individuals and from the trust
that holds the shares of Myrine Investments Ltd"
This
answer implies that in 1991 a Trust was in existence that a) held the title
to Myrine Investment Ltd shares and b) had access to substantial funds to
contribute to the multi million dollar purchase of the Amaroo land. This
raises two vital questions:
Who was
the beneficiary of this unnamed Trust ?
and What was the source of
the Trust's funds ?
Elan Vital
offers no answer to these questions, it does however seek to say what was
not. In answer to its FAQ Who are the beneficial owners of Myrine
Investments Ltd ?
Elan Vital
says
"There
is no individual beneficial owner as such and never has been. MIL provided a
convenient legal structure for the holding of the IRCC property. The IRCC
property is held not for any individual or for any person’s benefit but is
held for use for educational purposes. The shares of MIL are held for The
Prem Rawat Foundation for its public educational and charitable purposes.
The status of TPRF is approved by US regulatory authorities."
This
answer may be correct as to the ownership of Myrine Investments Ltd as of
2005, but TPRF only came into existence in 2002 and its most recent
statement makes no reference to its ownership of any substantial assets.
Further the statement "There is no individual beneficial owner as such
and never has been" is ambiguous, it avoids the question
of:
Who did
own Myrine Investments Ltd before its beneficial ownership was transferred
very recently to TPRF ?
Additional
confusion follows in a further FAQ
Does
Myrine Investments Ltd. own other property ?
"The
IRCC property is the only asset of MIL. MIL previously owned a residential
property in Brisbane which was purchased by individuals and transferred to
MIL in 1986. This property was lawfully acquired by the individuals
concerned for the personal use of Prem Rawat, during his visits to
Australia. For administrative ease, the property was transferred to MIL as a
convenient entity to hold it. The individuals originally involved with the
establishment of MIL understood the demarcation between the properties and
the different purposes for which they were held.
This property is no longer owned by MIL and was transferred out of MIL in
order to clearly separate those assets held for personal use from the asset,
IRCC, which is held for educational purposes. All applicable taxes and
governmental fees required to be paid or documents filed in relation to this
transaction have been done as required for any dealings of this nature. The
legal process of implementing this has taken some time and was completed in
2003."
The scale of
confusion now begins to look like deliberate dissemblement.
Elan Vital
has already said that at some point prior to the beneficial ownership being
acquired by TPRF that a "trust [held] the shares of Myrine Investments
Ltd". If Myrine Investments Ltd shares were held by a Trust, that Trust
must have had title to the "residential property in Brisbane".
Elan Vital also says "The IRCC property is ..... held for use for
educational purposes. The shares of MIL are held for The Prem Rawat
Foundation for its public educational and charitable purposes."
If the
Trust that held the title to Myrine Investments Ltd prior to TPRF obtaining
ownership, was charged with furthering 'educational purpose' how was that
Trust able to 'right off' the "residential property in Brisbane"
from its ownership without breaking its fiduciary responsibilities ?
Elan Vital
says that "The individuals originally involved with the establishment of
MIL understood the demarcation between the properties and the different
purposes for which they were held." This statement is a non sequitur, if
a Trust existed that owned Myrine Investments Ltd the only compelling
interest is that of the legally entitled Trustees and their legal
requirement to exercise their fiduciary responsibilities in respect of
meeting its 'educational purpose'.
The
question then arises:
On what
basis did (the) Trust "transfer the property out of MIL" without undermining
the Trustees fiduciary responsibilities in respect of meeting its
'educational purpose' ?
Elan Vital
reinforces the educational purpose consideration because it tells us that
This property is no longer owned by MIL and was transferred out of MIL in
order to clearly separate those assets held for personal use from the asset,
IRCC, which is held for educational purposes. Again a non sequitur is
proposed because there is no legal method by which a 'charitable' Trust can
hold 'private property' in the way Elan Vital seems to suggest happened.
BEHIND
THE FISCAL REVISION
The
Purpose of Myrine Investments Ltd:
Myrine
Investments Ltd was set up in 1981 as part of the financial structures that
facilitated Prem Rawat enjoying the benefits provided by his status de facto
leader of the then Divine Light Mission.
The
Ownership of Myrine Investments Ltd:
Claims
that Prem Rawat was the direct beneficiary of Myrine Investments Ltd are
almost certainly wrong, from the outset a Trust holding the Myrine shares
was the most likely arrangement. And as The Prem Rawat Foundation did not
come into existence until 2002, for over 20 years Myrine was beneficially
owned, via a Trust, by some as yet unidentified person or legal entity.
The
Transfer of Myrine Investments Ltd to TPRF:
As Myrine
Investments Ltd was owned and operated apparently successfully for and on
behalf of some unnamed Trust for nearly a quarter of century, the questions
arise as to why beneficial ownership was transferred to The Prem
Rawat Foundation ? and What were the circumstances of that transfer ?
THE
UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
What
was the name of the Trust that held the ownership of Myrine Investment Ltd
shares between 1981 and the recent acquisition by The Prem Rawat Foundation
?
Elan Vital
has never previously acknowledged the existence of such a Trust, certainly
it appears never to have been named publicly.
Who was
the beneficiary of this unnamed Trust that held the ownership Myrine
Investment Ltd shares between 1981 and prior to the recent acquisition by
The Prem Rawat Foundation ?
Elan Vital
in Australia, nor in the US, UK, or Switzerland where Elan Vital
organisations operate from has never before 2005 suggested that anyone
connected to Prem Rawat or Elan Vital controls a Trust operating for
educational purpose.
What
was the source of the unnamed Trust's funds with which it bought the land
for the Amaroo development ?
Previously
Elan Vital had claimed that the land acquisition was achieved by
'donations', the existence of a Trust which had claim to ownership of the
Amaroo land was never acknowledged.
How was
that Trust able to 'right off' the "residential property in Brisbane"
from its ownership without breaking it fiduciary responsibilities ?
In part
the answer to this question depends on a subsidiary question - under what
jurisdiction did the unnamed Trust operate ? The fact that Myrine Investment
Ltd was registered in Jersey does not mean that the Trust was constructed
under Jersey jurisdiction. Nevertheless any Trust that is claimed to operate
for a 'charitable benefit' is likely to be constrained, firstly from being a
convenient entity to hold a private property, and secondly from having
ownership of a property and being able to give it away without recompense.
On what
basis did (the) Trust "transfer the property out of MIL" without undermining
the Trustees' fiduciary responsibilities in respect of meeting its
'educational purpose' ?
Adopting a
charitable purpose is an onerous legal burden, giving away a property
without recompense suggests that the Trustees were grossly derelict in their
fiduciary duties.
Why was
beneficial ownership transferred to
The Prem Rawat Foundation ?
This
question is inextricably tied to the financial circumstances of the Amaroo
development and the embarrassment caused by the claims that Prem Rawat was
benefiting personally from the increased value that the development was
adding to property that he ultimately owned. With the transfer to TPRF the
criticisms appear to have been effectively deflected, however as the prior
beneficial ownerships is still secret the criticisms about ownership prior
to the TPRF transfer remain unaddressed.
What
were the circumstances of the transfer to The Prem Rawat Foundation ?
Many
subsidiary questions flow from this, including:
What
were the shares in Myrine Investment Ltd worth prior to transfer to TPRF ?
In
addition to the 'right off' of the "residential property in Brisbane",
were there any other material changes to the assets of Myrine Investment Ltd
that affected the value of Myrine Investment Ltd shares ?
Did
Myrine Investment Ltd buy back any share holding thus releasing capital to
its then share holders ?
Was
such a buy back financed with loans secured on the Amaroo property,
effectively reducing the net value of Myrine Investment Ltd shares ?
In
taking title on the Myrine Investment Ltd shares has TPRF adopted any
commercial risk or other liabilities ?
Whether
the public relations demands of the promotion of Prem Rawat require that
these questions be addressed remains to be seen.
SOURCES
Elan
Vital FAQs
Myrine
Registration
TPRF Statement
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