JOIN USPacheco ran many shadowy firms
On the contrary, his position and power provided him a convenient cover for businesses that were anything but straight.
Pacheco who hit Goa political circuit in early 2000 with cash to flaunt quickly made his mark. He won an assembly seat in 2002, became a minister, acquired a fleet of private cars and hopped on from the UGDP to the BJP, ending up in the NCP by 2005.
For a man who started out as a village tailor’s assistant, the ride seemed remarkable. Along the way he also acquired a football team. In 2006, the All Indian Football Federation barred Pacheco, who was the tourism minister at that time, from officiating on behalf of the Fransa Pax Football Club for his misbehaviour at a match.
In Goa, the seamy side of Pacheco’s manpower recruitment agency was an open secret. Investigating him for his friend Nadia Torrado’s death, the Goa police told the High Court in June that the activities of former tourism minister’s Bresources Management were very suspicious and possibly a cover for something else.
Being in power had obviously helped. Pacheco, who ran Fransa Manpower Services with his estranged wife Sara, also had a shell company Fransa Stylismo Manpower Services registered in Florida, USA in 1997.
After he split from his wife, he created Bresources Management, registering it in Florida in 2007 and Luxembourg in 2009 with his live-in companion Viola Fernandes as a partner. The Goa company had Nadia listed as manager.
Government sources said Pacheco used another shell company, Atlantic Maritime Ships Management, also registered in Florida to run the immigration racket to the USA.
He would provide fake recruitment letters ostensibly from cruise liners leaving from Cayman Islands on the basis of which transit visas were acquired for the United States, a senior minister told Deccan Herald.
The CBI which filed a case against Pacheco on Wednesday for providing forged documents to acquire visas from the US consulate in Mumbai raided his residence and business premises in south Goa over the last two days to seize documents. The CBI also recorded his statement on Friday.
Pacheco is expected to face a separate enquiry by the Enforcement Directorate for money laundering.
CBI freezes bank accounts
Former minister Micky Pacheco, who has been booked by the CBI for an immigration racket, was questioned for over three hours by the investigation agency in Panaji on Friday, reports DHNS. Pacheco’s bank accounts have also been frozen by the CBI, which attached his cellphones and laptops as well.