Indian Businessmen Mahtani Brothers, Import Shady Business Practices From Zambia into Nigeria

The great rip-off! 

If Bhagwani and Ratan Mahtani had their way, they would bid on President Muhammadu Buhari and own him, as they owned late former President of Zambia, Michael Sata. 

If wishes were horses, the owners and directors of Churchgate Nigeria Limited, would place Mr. President on a leash or string him like a dummy in order to control him - so doing, they would be treading on familiar grounds, like the path they traversed and exploited in faraway Zambia.

But Nigeria is NOT Zambia thus the Mahtanis may not get away with anything and everything like they did in the South African country. For instance, Zambia Reports, a Zambian news medium, recently revealed that the Mahtanis' shady dealings recently cost the Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Bank of Zambia (BOZ), Dr. Kasuka Mutukwa, his position at the bank.

It stated that the late former President of Zambia, Michael Sata, fired the senior official at the nation's central bank, allegedly at the request of the Mahtanis who reportedly used financial inducements to control the government of the African nation.

According to Zambia Reports, BOZ's Dr. Mutukwa was removed following complaints by Rajan Mahtani to the office of the president. "Mahtani, who was one of the late President Sata's largest financial supporters during his campaign, allegedly demanded that Mutukwa be fired from the bank because he opposed Mahtani's effort to strip the license of a Nigerian Bank seeking to enter the country.

"His former partners in Zambezi Portland Cement, the medium stated, had interests in the Nigerian Bank. For many months, Mahtani was engaged in a series of legal disputes with regard to control of the cement company."

While Zambia smarts from the Mahtanis' wily maneuvers, Nigeria equally suffers the downside of the Indians' dangerous business practices. Stakeholders in the country's business sector, comprising Indian, Lebanese and Nigerian businessmen and victims of the Mahtani brothers' cutthroat tactics, recently blew the lid on their illicit activities, calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to beam the search light of his anti-corruption crusade on the siblings. They accused the brothers of  tax evasion among other financial fraud.

The group further alleged that cases of fraud and underhand dealings involving the pair are well known in business circles; they don't just stop at arm-twisting local business owners including Nigerians but many of their victims, the defiant ones in particular, are subsequently attacked and subjected to deadly threats for resisting the incursion of the Mahtanis on their businesses.

Flagrant violation of labour regulations, tax and levies dodging, racketeering and other frauds characterize their business activities, according to the whistleblowers. The siblings who have reportedly naturalized to Nigerian citizenship, are famed for deploying cutthroat tactics, allegedly hunt down Nigerian entrepreneurs seeking to do legitimate business and boot them off the business arena using illicit maneouvers.

It would be recalled that many allegations have been made against the Mahtanis in the past; impersonation, perjury, threat to life of competitors and critics to mention a few have been cited as crucial part of their business strategy. And due to incessant reports about them, they were allegedly deported from Nigeria in the 1980s for defrauding the country, only for them to reemerge in the country few years later, bearing different names and identity from the ones by which they were deported by the Nigerian government in the 1980s.

For over one decade, Moses Oladotun Alade, a former Assistant Inspector with the Nigeria Customs Services (NCS), has repeatedly cried that the Mahtanis had defrauded him and refused to honour their contractual agreements in textile and fertilizer transactions running into multiple millions of naira.

Alade also said that, "Sometime in 1986, the so called Mahtanis were initially called the Manshaudani family (owners and Directors of Churchgate Nigeria Limited) and were charged to court by the Federal Government for alleged economic sabotage and exchange control malpractices; and they were found guilty, expelled and ordered to be deported to India from Nigeria.

"However, in 2002, the said directors of Churchgate who had been expelled and deported to India re-entered Nigeria after changing their names and international passports. They now bear B.I. Mathani, R.I. Mathani and J.P Mathani and N.K. Soumani respectively," Alade revealed.

Alade and other victims of the Mahtanis argued that if Indian companies such as Stallion Group and Olam who have been relatively less obtrusive and seemingly more straight forward in their businesses were last week accused of defrauding the Federal Government to the tune of N44 billion by the National Assembly, it is better left to the realms of imagination the amount that "must have been diverted by the Mahtanis who are believed to have no regard for regulations in Nigeria."