The Commonwealth Games Organising Committee is embroiled into yet another controversy of money laundering unearthed by the British authorities trailing huge sums coming into a bank account of a dubious one-man company of the Indian origin person, Ashish Patel alias Ash Patel alias Ashish Kumar.

An estimated Rs 3.28 crores have been siphoned off to AM Films UK Limited since September and the British authorities started investigations into the transactions when the company applied for VAT refund. The company shifted its office in London and Patel quickly resigned as its director on July 14 after the British government's Her Majesty Revenue and Customs (HMRC) mounted criminal investigations and alerted the Indian High Commission in London.

T S Darbari and Sanjay Mohindroo, two top officials of the Organising Committee very close to its chairman Suresh Kalmadi, a Congress MP from Pune, are allegedly involved in the scam. The Enforcement Directorate has already started a probe into the money transfers following the British authorities' alert to the Indian High Commission.

Darbari, a management guy who is the joint director-general of the Organising Committee heading its marketing and sponsorship divisions and also handling Commonwealth Business Club, and Mohindroo, the committee's deputy director general technology and marketing, reportedly made the alleged deal with Patel through Prasadh Acharya of St. James Court Hotel in May last year and got it going during their London visit for the Baton Relay event in October.

The British officials alerted the Indian High Commission last month, wondering if someone was siphoning off money to the nondescript company. "They were particularly concerned since public money was in transactions in connection with a large and important event like Commonwealth Games," says a 'secret' note from the High Commission received here.

It says two HMRC officials, who called on the deputy high commissioner on June 14, pointed out that they were making enquiries concerning "services provided by a local company, AM Films UK Ltd, to the 2010 Commonwealth Games Organising Committee (OrgCom)."

The note says the officials were worried that the amount involved are not small while "the company does not seem to have any contract with the OrgCom and does not figure in the list of companies involved in the Games." Suspecting that the transactions are not legitimate, the officials wanted to know "if any contract was signed and if the tendering process was bypassed."

The officials also told the deputy high commissioner that they became suspicious about the transactions since the services Patel claimed to have provided to the Organising Committee for receipt of moneys did not tally with the explanation provided by the committee for sending money to his company.

The High Commission's note, based on the briefing by the two British officials, says: "AM Films UK Ltd received two large instalments of money totaling approx UK Pounds 2,50,000 (about Rs 1.82 crores) from the OrgCom in its bank account (no. 22701021, sort code 151000 with RBS) in Sep/Oct 2009. Subsequently UK pounds 25,000 (about Rs 18.24 lakhs) have been transferred monthly to this bank account by the Orgcom.

"According to Patel, the large instalments were for services such as cars, makeshift toilets, barriers and electricity provided by his company during the Baton Relay event in October 2009. The monthly payments of UK pounds 25,000 is for consultancy to be provided by the company to the OrgCom in the run up to the Games on costume designing etc. This is at variance with the letter from the OrgCom which states that the company had provided services for video equipment," says the note.

The British investigators became suspicious as Patel not only ran the AM Films UK Limited but also AM Vehicles Hire Limited and several other outfits from the same address, all in a one-man show, and as such he could not have provided the kind of services for which he has to be paid month after month. They wanted the High Commission to ask the Indian government to probe the money trail as the British government would not like the Commonwealth Games getting a bad PR for the wrongdoings of some individuals in the Organising Committee.