Myrine Investments:
Is this one way Maharaji receives income from Elan Vital?




Webmaster's note: This document describes the ownership structure of the land in Australia known as Amaroo, and the organisation that leases it, Ivorys Rock Conference Centre. The purpose of the document is to demonstrate one way that Maharaji benefits financially from Elan Vital. Its intended audience is the relevant government authorities, journalists, and anyone else interested in learning more of the murky world of ownership within Prem Rawat's empire. I am satisfied that the document is accurate at the time of publication (October 2003). Please contact me on epowebmaster@yahoo.co.uk with any corrections, questions, or additional pertinent information.


Introduction:

This document outlines how a US-based religious leader - Prem Pal Singh Rawat - has benefited to the tune of tens of millions of dollars from the activities of a non-profit association incorporated in Australia, and a similar non-profit body in the US. The tax-free funds raised by these bodies have apparently been transformed into Mr Rawat's personal property assets in Australia, the US and elsewhere. Some of these assets are owned by Myrine Investments Ltd, incorporated in Jersey, whose beneficial owner is believed to be Mr Rawat.

These arrangements appear to have ramifications relating to Australian and US corporations and income tax law, and the conditions of Mr Rawat's Australian visa.

This document has been compiled with the assistance of serving and former senior followers of Mr Rawat, solicitors and attorneys in the USA and Australia - and was written subsequent to exploratory communications with corporate regulators in Australia, the US and Jersey (Channel Is.).

Investigations into the matters canvassed herein may have the potential to yield successful litigation and/or prosecutions, and to recover millions of dollars in evaded tax revenue, via Mr Rawat's well-identified property assets in Australia, the US and elsewhere.


Key:

Prem Pal (sometimes Prempal) Singh Rawat: Born December 10, 1957. Known publicly by the honorific "Maharaji" (formerly "Guru Maharaj Ji"). Indian-born US citizen who is the spiritual (not legal) head of Elan Vital worldwide, and "master" to tens of thousands of devotees. Visits Australia once or twice annually. Possesses both Indian and US passports. Home address: 31334 Anacapa View Dr, Malibu CA 90265, USA.

Elan Vital: Generic name for Mr Rawat's organisation, which has in fact been separately incorporated in dozens of countries. (Most were named Divine Light Mission till the early 1980s.) Many of these incorporated bodies have been wound up in the last few years or so. The remaining Elan Vitals are nearly devoid of assets, and have few if any surplus funds. A list of the various Elan Vitals and other associations of Maharaji's followers is at:
www.contact-info.net/contacts.cfm

Elan Vital, Inc.: In Australia: a non-profit association incorporated under South Australia's Associations Incorporation Act. (Was originally named Divine Light Mission, Inc.) Registered as a foreign company in all other Australian states, including Queensland (ARBN 007 505 535). Elan Vital, Inc is also the name of the parallel US body, which states itself to be "a charitable organization". It was incorporated in Colorado, and registered as a foreign company in California (file no. 215914) and probably other states. Tax basis: non-stock (non-profit.) In the UK, Elan Vital is a Registered Charity no. 1016818. In this document, "Elan Vital" refers to the Australian body unless otherwise stated.

Ivory's Rock Conference Centre (IRCC): 800 hectares on several titles at Peak Crossing, 25 kilometres south of Ipswich, south-east Queensland, Australia. The international meeting place for Mr Rawat and his devotees. (Also rented out periodically to private companies for seminars, etc.) Contains tens of millions of dollars in infrastructure and improvements. Land value: about $AU 1 million. Present sale value (with improvements): $AU 7-10 million.

Myrine Investments Limited: Incorporated in Jersey (Channel Is.) in 1981, and registered since 1986 as a foreign company in Queensland, Australia. The foreign company registration was recently shifted to NSW. (ARBN: 010 620 603. ABN: 49 010 620 603.) Myrine owns most of the titles of Ivory's Rock Conference Centre.

Jeeps Nominees Pty Ltd: Trust company registered in Queensland by Elan Vital, Inc. (ACN: 068 508 298.)

Ivory's Rock Conference Centre Pty Ltd: Management company for IRCC, owned by Jeeps Nominees - i.e. owned at armslength by Elan Vital, Inc. (ACN: 068 618 922. ABN: 82 068 618 922.)

Of little direct relevance to this document, but mentioned for the record, are:

The Elan Vital Foundation: Incorporated in Switzerland. Since the late 1970s, a financial "hub" for the various national Elan Vitals. (And their Indian equivalent, named Divine United Organization (DUO).) The Foundation facilitates "the co-ordination of international events and projects" - notably the operation of Mr Rawat's succession of private jets.

The Prem Rawat Foundation (TPRF): A legal entity recently incorporated (and presently seeking tax exemption) in the US, with the possible purpose of replacing Elan Vital. TPRF's 5-person board is comprised of Mr Rawat's devotees. Its president/director is Linda Pascotto. See
www.tprf.org


1. Background:

The accuracy (or otherwise) of this dossier may be established via straightforward investigatory avenues.

Prem Pal Singh Rawat is a US-based spiritual "master" or "guru" whose international activities are now focused chiefly on the US and Australia. Specifically, these activities are focused on the property in south-east Queensland (Australia) known as Ivory's Rock Conference Centre, which since 1992 has hosted perhaps a dozen gatherings attended by up to 4600 of his followers, from every continent.

These gatherings do not usually turn a large profit, though have been known to nett $US 500,000. Smaller gatherings for about 400 of Mr Rawat's "major donors" typically yield several million US dollars, some of which is thought to find its way to Mr Rawat in ways outlined herein.

Mr Rawat has considerable personal assets worldwide - including numerous mansions, a luxury yacht, a luxury car collection, and so on. Mr Rawat is a highly qualified pilot. For his personal use, a Grumman Gulfstream G5 jet is "dry leased". The G5 is the most sophisticated private jet in the world, worth $US 40+ million. The "aircraft operators", according to the Eurocontrol air safety and navigation database, are "Prem Rawat/The Premier Trust".

In addition to the questionable practices outlined in this document, Mr Rawat owns shares in several businesses owned and/or managed by devotees, and receives regular gifts from wealthy devotees. It is not claimed that these arrangements are necessarily illegal.

In the US, many of Mr Rawat's assets are owned by the Seva Corporation (registered in several states). These include:


* His mansion in California ($US 20-25 million).

* Nine other property titles in California (value in 2000: $US 2+ million).

* A Stemme S10-VT aircraft (value in 2000: $US 175,000).

* A G103 Twin II glider (value unknown).

* A Bell 206L helicopter (value unknown).


Mr Rawat also sails a 106-foot yacht, Serenity, which is valued at $US 7 million, and owned by Premo Marine, Inc.


Both Seva Corporation and Premo Marine have directors who are loyal devotees of Mr Rawat, and it is bunderstood that their undated letters of resignation are kept in Mr. Rawat's possession.

The funds for the purchase of some of the above assets have been raised by Mr Rawat's non-profit organisation, Elan Vital, as a former senior officer, Michael Donner, has stated in the press. However the principal purpose of this document is to outline events which are more recent and clear-cut:


In essence, the non-profit Elan Vital, Inc. - both the Australian and US corporations - have been utilised to enrich Mr Rawat personally. In this document we focus chiefly (though not exclusively) on Ivory's Rock Conference Centre in Australia, which is the most prominent asset which has been obtained in this manner. Fund-raising for IRCC occurred (and occurs) in the US, the UK and elsewhere, as well in Australia.

It is worth making four salient points from the beginning:

1. If suspected fraud and tax evasion were to be investigated, there is a straightforward document trail to inspect, and there are former senior Elan Vital organisers willing to be interviewed by both media and legal authorities. In addition, we speculate that Elan Vital, Inc. directors who have recently resigned in disquiet at the arrangements outlined herein - but who are still Mr Rawat's devotees - would yield valuable information if interviewed. Finally, the financial records of the key corporations involved in the questionable money transfers, with the exception of Myrine, are publicly searchable in Australia.

2. There are many liquidatable assets via which authorities may recoup debt and fines. Mr Rawat's known assets are conservatively valued at $US50 million, with the majority of this in Australia and the US.

3. The bulk of the funds has been raised, and converted into assets for Mr Rawat, in the last five to ten years. This hopefully negates US statute of limitations concerns.

4. The key to proving the above arrangement lies in the Jersey corporate registry, where the beneficial owner of Myrine Investments is documented. We are reliably informed that the Jersey authorities will open the registry to any "responsible foreign authority" showing good cause.


2. Myrine Investments and the IRCC asset:

Land value aside, Ivory's Rock Conference Centre (IRCC) has tens of millions of dollars in improvements and infrastructure, including miles of fibre optic cabling and a $AU 600,000 meeting hall. Funds for all this are raised by Australia's Elan Vital, Inc., which leases the property from the property's owner, Myrine Investments Ltd. The US and other Elan Vitals funnel money to their Australian equivalent for the purpose.

Roughly $US 10 million in loans has been raised from devotees to fund improvements to IRCC in this manner. Some devotees have mortgaged their homes for the purpose. The loans are not secured by the property, only by Elan Vital's directors.

Secured commercial loans have also been taken out, though to a much lesser degree. Thus these are "ahead in the queue" of the devotee loans in the event of pay-out of all loans.

All the above loans should be on Elan Vital, Inc.'s publicly searchable accounts. So should the monies raised as donations. We have little idea how much donations might amount to. It is perhaps reasonable to speculate that it is also in the millions - though probably less millions than the loans add up to.

Alvaro Pascotto, the US-based devotee lawyer who oversees the arrangements outlined in this document, has often told Elan Vital directors who are resigning in consternation on discovering the true owner of Myrine, that in the event of "financial trouble" Mr Rawat will personally support IRCC financially. That is, that he will not allow these devotees to lose their money. The IRCC borrowing arrangements have tied up the borrowing power of the worldwide devotee community. This suggests that if the repayments default and the arrangement collapses, the only party capable of bailing out IRCC is Mr Rawat.

Myrine's assets in Australia alone - one mansion on 5 acres at Jesmond Road in the Brisbane suburb of Fig Tree Pocket, and Ivory's Rock Conference Centre - are perhaps worth a total of $AU 15 million. In addition, Myrine owns Mr Rawat's luxury homes in England (at Reigate) and South Africa, and his apartment in South America. Myrine also owns cash, stock and other paper assets.

(Via Myrine and other entities, Mr Rawat beneficially owns a mansion in Brisbane (Australia), two luxury dwellings at IRCC (Australia), mansions at Malibu (USA), Delhi (India), Reigate (UK), Mauritius, as well as a luxury apartment in South America. Mansions in Rome (Italy) and rural Argentina, and a luxury apartment in Madrid (Spain) are yet to be confirmed.)


It is believed that Myrine Investments Ltd is secretly owned by Mr Rawat. ("Secretly" because Jersey does not publicly disclose beneficial owners of companies incorporated there.)

Specifically, Elan Vital has created the public impression that IRCC is owned by an overseas corporate entity for the devotee community as a whole. But the Jersey-incorporated Myrine Investments is owned by a trust which is itself controlled by Mr Rawat.

The Jersey records of Myrine's ownership are not public - and publicly Myrine is "owned" by various professional company directors in Jersey (usually Jersey-resident accountants or lawyers): so-called nominee shareholders.

(Searches with the Jersey Financial Services Commission reveal that the two listed shareholders of Myrine Investments Ltd are Lively Ltd (4,940,000 ordinary shares) and Juris Ltd (60,000 ordinary shares). Both are companies incorporated in Jersey - Lively (company no. 3719) on April 9, 1969, and Juris (company no. 24294) on August 11, 1982. Since Myrine's incorporation on December 23, 1981, its solicitors in Jersey have been Mourant & Co Ltd.)

The key asset under discussion in this document is Ivory's Rock Conference Centre - which has been funded with tax-free monies raised by Elan Vital, Inc. IRCC's ostensible purpose is as a facility for Mr Rawat's devotees and the public at large (and not as a private holding for Mr Rawat).

However before the days of IRCC, all Myrine's known holdings were Mr Rawat's private homes in various countries. Myrine still owns most of those properties - but also now owns IRCC. It seems anomalous that a corporation created to own the homes in which Mr Rawat lives would also own a property which was for a wider public. It is suggested that this is further evidence, on the face of it, that Mr Rawat is IRCC's beneficial owner.

A way of obviating claims that Mr Rawat benefits financially from Elan Vital would be to have IRCC owned - publicly and transparently - by Elan Vital or some corporate offspring. Or indeed any company but Myrine, which has long been associated with his personal holdings.

Finally, Mr Rawat speaks publicly from time to time of IRCC as being "his" property.

The above, whilst circumstantial, appears to provide "good cause" for any Australian or US government agency to seek the name of Myrine's beneficial owner from the Jersey authorities. Before taking that step, if need be, the information could be reinforced by interviews with serving and recent Elan Vital organisers as to Myrine's beneficial ownership.

Jersey is an extremely well-regulated corporate jurisdiction, as the FBI among other authorities has recently noted. We believe that if good cause is shown by an appropriate foreign authority, the Jersey authorities will disclose to it the name of a company's beneficial owner.

The Jersey Financial Services Commission's publicly searchable records list:

MYRINE INVESTMENTS LIMITED RC 23-Dec-81 22632

("RC" = Registered Company. The date is the incorporation date. And 22632 is Myrine's "Registered Company Number".)


3. Myrine, IRCC and Elan Vital: the nuts and bolts:

(i) Ownership:

Like its US and UK counterparts, Elan Vital, Inc. in Australia owns no real property - save for one small title of the several at IRCC. And it owns very little personal property. But in a very transient sense, it does have substantial assets.

Elan Vital leases IRCC from Myrine. And whilst Myrine owns the vast majority of the IRCC land, for the moment Elan Vital owns the buildings and other improvements thereon. This has been done because Elan Vital, being a non-profit association, is not required to pay company income tax on the monies it brings in to build these improvements. (Income tax exemption was granted to Elan Vital, Inc. in 1974.)

In other words, Elan Vital finances, and owns, multi-million dollar improvements on land it does not own.

Thus, if Elan Vital were dissolved, or if the Myrine-EV lease were terminated, all the property's improvements will revert to the property-owner, Myrine Investments, beneficially owned by Mr Rawat. There is an agreement in place for Mr Rawat to "pay for" the improvements in that eventuality, but it is not known to what extent the arrangement would prove equitable for all parties, most notably IRCC's donors.

This situation takes on some immediacy in light of the fact that Elan Vital, Inc. (in Australia), is presently insolvent. It is also very much a possibility that IRCC will have to be sold in the next year or so. Finally, many more devotee lenders than usual are presently requesting the refund of their monies from IRCC.

Even assuming Elan Vital survives, anyone who knows Mr Rawat's relationship with his devotees will be aware that if he instructs that the Elan Vital-Myrine lease agreement over IRCC be terminated, it will be terminated.

IRCC's apparent secret arms length ownership by Mr Rawat is interesting in light of a long-standing Elan Vital claim. The website of Elan Vital, Inc in the USA - www.elanvital.org/about.html - echoes the legal requirements of non-profit bodies the world over:

"Maharaji [Mr. Rawat] receives no compensation from Elan Vital."

The President of Elan Vital, Inc. in the US, Linda Gross, states on the website:

"Elan Vital is separate from Maharaji. Its purpose is to promote his teachings, but he is not an officer, director or employee of the organization."

Linda Gross may have omitted the most important legal term of all here: "beneficiary".

If Mr Rawat's company, Myrine, owns the various titles to the IRCC property (except for the one small title owned by Elan Vital), can he be said to be "separate" from Elan Vital? Elan Vital, Inc. - which is a non-profit association under South Australian law - has raised tens of millions of tax-free dollars to develop IRCC.

Inspection of Myrine's non-public file in Jersey will reveal that those tens of millions have been effectively transformed into the asset of single individual. Given the terms of South Australia's Associations Incorporation Act (under which Elan Vital is incorporated), Australian taxation legislation, and Elan Vital's own constitution, this may be of dubious legality. Parallel observations could presumably be made of the US and UK jurisdictions.


In a nutshell, the above information suggests three things:

1. The IRCC property has been secretly procured for a private individual with tax-free funds, via a non-profit association.

2. The rents paid by the non-profit Elan Vital to the Rawat-owned Myrine, under the terms of their lease agreement, also accrue to that individual.

3. The improvements to the property, funded by Elan Vital and owned by Elan Vital at present, revert to the Rawat-owned Myrine Investments if Elan Vital is wound up, or when the Myrine-Elan Vital lease terminates. It is not known how equitable this settlement will prove to be.


The improvements to IRCC include a $600,000 meeting hall; miles of underground fibre optic cabling, phone lines, electricity and water; miles of sealed roads; a dining hall with kitchen facilities; manicured campgrounds for 2500, including power and modern bathroom blocks; a sewerage system sufficient for a large town; a "pavilion" shopping and recreation area; an office complex; a construction office hub; an onsite computer network; warehouses and workshops; a tiered outdoor amphitheatre for 4500, with a permanent stage, including a backstage area for Mr Rawat which has been described as "like a two-storey luxury home"; Mr Rawat's hilltop home or "lodge"; Mr Rawat's "campground" - three separate luxury buildings; a partly-built fine dining restaurant; dams, fencing, vehicles, construction equipment, and much more. IRCC has paid for town water and a council road to be brought from to the property from several kilometres away.

Though Ivory's Rock Conference Centre may not bring more than $A10 million if liquidated, the property has been considerably over-capitalised. The total of the investment there is in the tens of millions - and higher again if 11 years of (mostly free) labour by devotees is factored in. The land value of the 800 hectares is on top of that.


(ii) The lease:

Regarding Elan Vital's lease agreement over the IRCC property with Myrine: although this formally expires after 30 years, it may be terminated at any time with the consent of both parties.

As an indication of how flexible the Myrine-Elan Vital lease is, it began as 3+3+3 years, then was changed to 6+6+6. Then, roughly three years ago, it was changed to 30 years.

Because of the ease with which he could order the lease terminated - or for that matter the property sold - and because most loans to the property are unsecured, Mr Rawat, were he so inclined, could apparently walk away with the proceeds of the sale of the IRCC asset at relatively short notice.


(iii) Management and Funding:

The management arrangements for the property are another kettle of fish again. The Australian Elan Vital, Inc. owns Jeeps Nominees Pty Ltd, a trust company registered in Brisbane. Jeeps, in turn, owns Ivory's Rock Conference Centre Pty Ltd, which is the company which manages the property.

IRCC markets itself as a commercial conference centre, and officially Elan Vital is just a client. (It is contractually acknowledged as IRCC's "principal" client.) In reality the relationship is much closer: there have been duplications of both directors and management personnel. And of course Elan Vital secretly owns IRCC's management company, via Jeeps. Directors of all three companies alike do Mr Rawat's bidding without question.

Elan Vital, Inc., raises loans and donations worldwide, and transfers them into an Elan Vital "International Account" - at the National Bank, St Marys, Queensland. This account is administered by IRCC Pty Ltd. With this account, IRCC Pty Ltd develops IRCC.


4. Summary:

The above arrangements:

1. Hide the fact that Elan Vital funnels millions of dollars into IRCC.

2. Hide the fact that IRCC is developed with tax-free funds from a non-profit association - but is beneficially owned by a private individual.

3. Mean that, while the IRCC asset itself goes to Mr Rawat, responsibility for raising the loans to create that asset - currently believed to stand at over $US10 million in total - and for raising the donations, and the actual work of development, go to Elan Vital and Mr Rawat's devotees.


Let's pause for breath here and recap. Here is a brief summary of IRCC's management and ownership:

(a) The management: IRCC is managed and developed by Ivory's Rock Conference Centre Pty Ltd, using funds raised by its secret, "arms length" corporate parent, Elan Vital, Inc.

(b) The land: Via a trust, Mr Rawat owns Myrine Investments, which owns most of the titles to Ivory's Rock Conference Centre. IRCC is leased by Myrine to Elan Vital, Inc.

(c) The buildings and other improvements: These are owned by Elan Vital, Inc. But when Elan Vital's lease over IRCC expires, they devolve to Myrine, which is owned by Mr Rawat. An agreement is in place for Mr Rawat to refund the value of the improvements in the event of the sale of IRCC, though it is presently unclear who determines their value.


5. Possible ramifications:

(i) Under the South Australian Associations Incorporation Act, directors of a hypothetical association who conceal or facilitate the association being used to benefit a private individual are liable to a range of penalties - for instance a $5000 fine or one year's jail (section 55: private benefit) or $10,000 or two years' jail (section 49AF: fraud).

There is no specific provision under the Act to prosecute the beneficiaries of fraud, etc who are not directors. However our legal advice is that other legislation, and common law, suggest that a beneficiary of "associations fraud" and like offences could be prosecuted:


1. As a conspirator to the crimes.

2. As an accessory before or after the fact.

3. For aiding and abetting the crimes.

4. For suborning perjury, if directors of the association have signed false declarations or returns at his behest.


(ii) The Australian and US tax evasion ramifications here are abundant and self-evident.

(iii) In response to questions regarding a hypothetical Jersey-incorporated company which may be being used to evade taxes and breach company law in other jurisdictions, the Attorney General of Jersey, Mr William Bailhache, states:

1. "For the purposes of using the powers conferred on the Attorney General under the Investigation of Fraud (Jersey) Law, 1991, I do not regard the fact that the victim might be a foreign tax authority to be a reason not to give assistance" to that authority. "We do not in Jersey have the same narrow definition of 'tax fraud' as may be applied in some other jurisdictions."

2. "One of the objectives we seek to achieve in this Department is the giving of effective assistance within reasonable timescales to overseas judicial and law enforcement agencies in criminal matters."


The Authorisation Director of the Jersey Financial Services Commission, Mr Roger Bignell, confirms that the FSC is "fully committed to co-operating with other law enforcement agencies and we can supply information" such as beneficial owners when authorised by the Attorney General.

Under Jersey law, no court order is required for the Attorney General to assist foreign authorities. An investigation by a foreign authority with appropriate statutory power, showing good cause, would be sufficient grounds at law for the disclosure of the beneficial owner of a Jersey company.

The Attorney General can also require Jersey-incorporated companies to produce accounts, and is empowered to provide these to foreign authorities.

All the above powers are exercisable in a case where the Attorney General believes there is a suspected offence involving serious or complex fraud, wherever in the world it may have been committed.

The Jersey Law Officers' Report of 2001 reveals that 120 "requests for assistance" on Jersey-incorporated companies were received from foreign judicial and law enforcement authorities. Most involved the divulging of names of beneficial owners to foreign authorities. All such requests were met, bar two which lapsed on technicalities. The vast majority were fraud-related.

It is notable, given that Myrine is owned by Mr Rawat via a trust, that Jersey (unlike many jurisdictions) regulates trusts with the same stringency as it regulates other corporate entities.


(iv) Re Mr Rawat's Australian immigration status: Presently Mr Rawat enters the country on a visa which allows him to talk at meetings - such as those at IRCC - but not earn income. However large sums are often raised for IRCC's development at the meetings he speaks at. Indeed some such meetings - the "major donors" gatherings - are held entirely for the purpose of fund-raising for IRCC.

As Mr Rawat is IRCC's beneficial owner, this raises the question of whether he may be in breach of his visa conditions: essentially, it appears he is raising funds which will be converted into his asset.

A more clear-cut breach of visa conditions may lie in Mr Rawat's receiving cash (typically $A1-2000 daily) for living expenses from the Myrine Investments "till" during large programs at IRCC.


6. Some investigative avenues:

(i) The accounts of all the Australian-registered companies associated with Mr Rawat should be available through CABA in South Australia, and ASIC.

(ii) The Jersey register of Myrine Investments Ltd could be inspected in the manner outlined herein.

(iii) The accounts of Rawat-associated companies in the US, as well as Mr Rawat's tax returns, are searchable by US authorities.

(iv) Mr Rawat's property assets in Australia, the US and elsewhere can be identified (and valued) from the "roadmap" this document provides, and confirmed via the relevant searches of publicly available company and land title documents.

(v) Matters such as the above, as well as a subject's immigration status, are increasingly the subject of multi-agency co-operation within the US and Australia, and of co-operation between the agencies of both countries.

(vi) One might need to establish that Mr Rawat was volitionally involved in the arrangements detailed herein. That he, for example, ordered the creation of Myrine, or that he ordered the construction of specific buildings or infrastructure at IRCC. This may be done via interviewing ex-devotees. Some could comfortably state that Mr Rawat said the IRCC property was "his". Others within Elan Vital could be persuaded to tell the truth regarding specific assets. (For example, everyone at IRCC is aware that Mr Rawat ordered the construction of the meeting hall and most other major improvements.)


Some specifics re the US:

Mr Rawat may have annually filed Form 3520-A, Annual Information Return of Foreign Trusts With U.S. Owner, as required by law. If so, this should afford information on Myrine's financial status, even before going to Jersey.

A US taxpayer must also file U.S. Treasury Form TD F 90-22.1, Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts Report, if he has an interest of over $10,000 in foreign bank accounts, securities, and the like. As Myrine owns an unknown value in cash, stocks and other paper assets, these forms - if they have been filed - may yield salient information.

US taxpayers may also be required to to acknowledge an interest in a foreign bank account, security account or foreign trust on Schedule B, Interest and Dividend Income which is attached to Form 1040.

There is no evidence that Mr Rawat "layers" his foreign trusts or companies, which would mean a relatively straightforward paper trail.


7. Afterthoughts:

Mr Rawat's connection to Myrine has perhaps been Elan Vital's most closely guarded secret. Ordinary devotees know nothing of it, and neither do many senior organisers. Even most members of Elan Vital's international legal team have not seen the relevant documentation. Possibly the only devotee who has seen it is Alvaro Pascotto, Mr Rawat's chief lawyer, resident in the US.

As stated earlier, some directors of Elan Vital, Inc. have become aware of the Myrine "arrangement" - and of their own legal exposure because of it. This has resulted in them resigning their directorships. Australian Securities and Investment Commission searches reveal that there is presently "movement on the registers" of the relevant companies:

For instance there have been recent changes to particulars of the office-holders of Myrine Investments Ltd (8/3/02), Jeeps Nominees Pty Ltd (13/1/02), Elan Vital, Inc. (14/2/02 and 13/5/02) and Ivory's Rock Conference Centre Pty Ltd (3/12/01, 14/2/02 and 13/5/02).

We do not presume to recommend what action, if any, should be taken in these matters. But for what it is worth, we believe that Mr Rawat's devotees are the innocent dupes in all of this.

No devotee, to our knowledge, has benefited financially from the arrangements described herein. Elan Vital board members are not paid, and neither are Mr Rawat's lawyers and most of the other staff drawn from his devotees. (Elan Vital in the US has one paid employee.) Of the hundreds of Australian and foreign devotees who work at IRCC in any given year, the vast majority work for nothing (living on savings or unemployment benefits), and even those few who are paid receive barely enough to live on - typically three of four hundred Australian dollars a week.

If any investigation were to be conducted into the matters outlined herein, in our opinion now is an opportune time to conduct it. IRCC's neighbours are up in arms, Elan Vital is financially weakened, negative TV and newspaper exposure in Australia and elsewhere has been considerable, and devotees are leaving in some numbers. All this will afford weak resistance, a greater likelihood of informants "rolling over", and a hinterland of public support.

Given these difficult circumstances, it is conceivable that in the next year IRCC will be put on the market. Additionally, in light of The Brisbane Courier Mail's recent oblique allusions to Mr Rawat's "tax haven" arrangements, it is possible that further legal smokescreens will be put in place to make discovery of the arrangements outlined in this document more difficult.

But we suggest that the target of any action should be Mr Rawat, who ordered the construction of the scenario outlined herein, and who is its sole beneficiary.




For more information regarding Amaroo
and Prem Rawat's assets, see also:


Who Owns What Around Maharaji - The Jet, the Residences, the Yacht etc

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