Rakesh Saxena
An Aussie conman who left a global trail of debt, deceit and powerful enemies before disappearing 10 years ago faked his own death says Rakesh Saxena, the Thai fugitive-banker in Vancouver.
Tim Gatland who boasted about supposed links to the plutonium and arms trade and had seemed to relish making enemies in the Thai military and government, the Russian mafia and even the CIA.
The brazen Sydney conman created burnt investors in four continents and then vanished outside a Bangkok hotel in November 1996. Almost everybody gave him up for dead. Now Gatland’s most important patron, Saxena, has told the Sydney Morning Herald it was all an elaborate hoax. “Yeah, he faked his own death,” said Saxena, who is accused with Gatland of defrauding the Bangkok Bank of Commerce.
Saxena is blamed for the collapse of the Bangkok Bank of Commerce and is accused of embezzling $88-million which led to an Asian economic crisis.
Over the past decade after he was arrested in Whistler, Saxena, with his pile of cash has been spending millions of dollars in the Canadian courts to stymie extradition efforts by Thailand.
Saxena, who lives under a court-approved self-paying house arrest program in Richmond, B.C. told the Herald he had met Gatland at a bar in Vancouver after his supposed death.
“The murder is absolute hogwash … I think what he did is basically pull the rug over everybody’s eyes.”
Saxena said Gatland met him in Canada in late 1996 and in 1997 and he had remained in telephone contact until 2003. Saxena said he believed Gatland used a fake passport and identity to “disappear” from Bangkok to Switzerland, Canada, Latin America and Eastern Europe.
Western intelligence agencies are said to have reported that Gatland was seen alive and well in Eastern Europe.
Following his disappearance, there was speculation that Gatland, who had a German-Brazilian girlfriend, had fled to Brazil.
Whether or not Gatland is dead or in hiding, the implications of the mayhem he has unleashed have come back to haunt those still living, Australian media reported.
Foremost among them is the diplomat who is now Australia’s deputy high commissioner in Sri Lanka, Matthew Hyndes.
The Herald revealed that Thailand sought his extradition over dealings connected to Gatland’s plot to take over a $650 million Thai military bank, but Australia refused.
Dr Hyndes has told acquaintances he is convinced his friend Gatland was killed in November 1996 by powerful Thais he had offended. Dr Hyndes is said to have personally searched the morgues of Bangkok in vain attempts to find his body.
Gatland had boasted about supposed links to the plutonium and arms trade and had seemed to relish making enemies in the Thai military and government, the Russian mafia and even the CIA. Saxena said Gatland had used Dr Hyndes to lend credibility to his schemes in Bangkok. The Herald reported Dr Hyndes was questioned by Thai authorities shortly after Gatland’s disappearance in November 1996.
On the day of his disappearance, Gatland spent the early hours of his last Saturday in Bangkok drinking cocktails and smoking cigars with two cross-dressing Thai men and the son-in-law of a Saudi arms dealer.
After sleeping from 6am to 2pm, the 30-year-old Australian businessman emerged to cavort with venture capitalists and two blonde Russian teenagers, Angelika and Julia.
At Spasso nightclub, Gatland showed an interest in Angelika - a “probable prostitute” according to a confidential Australian Federal Police report. He retired, alone, at 7am.
Over a late lunch on Sunday, Gatland discussed deals involving Adnan Kashoggi, the billionaire Saudi Arabian arms dealer of Iran Contra fame, and Rakesh Saxena.
Scribbled at the bottom of the secret police report are the names Oleg Boiko and Andre Agapov, whom Saxena describes as “very big players” acting on behalf of the then Russian president, Boris Yeltsin.
Police say Gatland was last seen at 10.15pm on Sunday, November 10, 1996, by his driver, Preecha Hong-Ohn, outside the five-star Dusit Thani Hotel. Gatland had with him a change of clothes, a gun and $30,000 in cash. The police report records two final, unanswered phone calls at midnight made from Gatland’s mobile phone.
One was to his friend and employee, the Australian diplomat Matthew Hyndes.
Prior to his disappearance Gatland lent, bribed and bluffed his way through Bangkok, telling friends of his involvement in smuggling tanks and helicopters from Eastern Europe to South-East Asia.
One of his swindles played a bit part in the collapse of the $4 billion Bangkok Bank of Commerce, which some say was a trigger for the Asian financial crisis.
Gatland boasted about his links to the underground plutonium trade - real or otherwise - prompting a CIA flying squad to arrive in Bangkok to question his friends.
Saxena says he is surprised Australian and Thai authorities had not done more to find Gatland.
He says they should begin by asking Hyndes what, if anything, he knows.
