By IANS
New Delhi : The Delhi High Court Thursday ordered Delhi Police to release on bail an Iceland national who was arrested here following a Red Corner notice by Interpol for his alleged role in a money laundering scam.
A division bench headed by Justice Mukul Mudgal directed Gunnar Stefan Moller, also known as Wathe Stefan, to furnish a bond of $150,000 and report to the local magistrate twice a week till the disposal of his application.
The Delhi district court had dismissed his bail plea. Moller had challenged the decision of the lower court before the high court.
Delhi Police had nabbed him at the Indira Gandhi International Airport Sep 21 in pursuant to the notice from Interpol, which had received a US court order in that regard Sep 15.
Additional Solicitor General P.P. Malhotra opposed the bail plea saying that 65 foreign nationals had fled from the country after they were released on bail.
He pleaded that stringent conditions should be laid down for bail.
Appearing for Moller, senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi said, “The accused had not committed any crime in India. Moreover, money laundering till July 2007 was not a crime in India.
“Moller would be prepared to submit the passports of his mother and sisters, who are in India,” Singhvi said.
According to the application filed by the government, a US district court in North Carolina had issued a warrant against Moller Sep 15, 2005.
According to the US authorities, Moller helped one William Pikard, convicted for manufacturing LSD, launder his ill-gotten money by investing it in Russia. The US authorities estimate Moller had laundered as much as $3 million for Pikard in Russia.
According to the charges framed in the US court, Pikard first took up a research position at the University of California in Los Angeles. He got his research funded through a Russian associate in the university, one Viatchelav Kolesnikov.
But the ‘donated fund’ actually came through Moller and it was Pikard’s own money the Icelander had earlier transferred to Russia.
Kolesnikov received money from entities controlled by Moller in Estonia and other places between 1998 and 2005 and then he made ‘donations’ to fund Pikard’s research.
Money laundering is a serious offence in the US. If charges against Moller are proved, he could be sentenced up to 20 years in jail.