The data show that dealings of stolen artifacts and transactions continued years after the arrest of the alleged kingpin.Data from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the US regulatory agency for enforcing money laundering laws, provide a glimpse into the network of companies and individuals trading with antiques smuggler Subhash Kapoor who is now in a Tamil Nadu jail.
The data show that dealings of stolen artifacts and transactions continued years after the arrest of the alleged kingpin.
Kapoor was one of 17 subjects in a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) filed on March 20, 2017 by the Standard Chartered Bank, New York, “for obtaining millions of dollars in trafficking looted artifacts from international smugglers and selling them illegally”.
Transactions of $27.88 million were made between March 2010 and March 2017. The SAR noted: “Art is utilized as a money laundering vehicle and is a red flag which is commonly used to conceal cash.”
The FinCEN Files have been investigated by The Indian Express in collaboration with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, BuzzFeed News and 108 media partners into bank compliances and anti-money-laundering systems around the world.
Kapoor, 71, is in Trichy central jail for smuggling idols from Tamil Nadu temples. He is facing charges in the US as well for smuggling idols and artifacts from countries in Asia. He was arrested on October 30, 2011 at Frankfurt, and extradited to India in July 2012.
A complaint filed in July 2019 in a Criminal Court of New York by the US Department of Homeland Security stated that the “total value of stolen antiquities known to have been trafficked by Kapoor exceeds USD 145.71 million”.
Over 30 years, Kapoor is suspected to have trafficked thousands of antiques, including statues and paintings, most of them now believed to be stolen artifacts, and 2622 of them were seized, the complaint stated.
An intermediary for Kapoor, the complaint stated, entered Afghanistan during the country’s civil war in the 1990s and bribed a Mujahideen commander for access to an archaeological site. The deal allegedly yielded two stucco Buddha heads dating to the Gandhara civilization.
In Tamil Nadu, he faces two cases of theft involving 28 idols. It is being investigated by the Idol Wing CID of the Tamil Nadu Police. The cases relate to the theft of idols from the Sundareswarar temple and Varadaraja Perumal temple in Ariyalur district in April 2008, and from the Arulmigu Pragatheeswarar temple in the same district.
These are among the idol theft cases being heard in the court of the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate in Kumbakonam in Thanjavur district.
In October 2013, two years after the arrest of Kapoor, his sister Sushma Sareen was also arrested, allegedly for hiding stolen idols worth more than USD 14 million. Multiple raids were conducted by the FBI in March 2016 under an operation codenamed Hidden Idol.
Nancy Wiener, who owns the Nancy Wiener Gallery in New York and allegedly assisted Kapoor in smuggling of antiques, was also arrested in December 2016 on a similar charge. Sushma and Nancy are currently out on bail.
On December 21, 2016, a complaint filed before a criminal court in New York stated: “Between at least 1999 and 2016, with intent that conduct constituting the crimes”, Nancy Wiener utilized her business Nancy Wiener Gallery “to buy, smuggle, launder, and sell millions of dollars” worth of antiquities stolen from countries including India through some auction houses.
The SAR listed entities with whom Kapoor and his business allies were trading. Most of the bank transfers mentioned in the SAR were made through accounts of Standard Chartered Bank branches in different countries.
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