Indian police arrested a man operating a fake embassy from a rented house near New Delhi. The arrest led to the recovery of cars with fake diplomatic plates.
The suspect impersonated an ambassador and reportedly duped job seekers out of money with promises of overseas employment.
According to Indian authorities, the suspect, Harshvardhan Jain, 47, was operating “an illegal West Arctic embassy by renting a house” in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh.
The police said Jain claimed to be the ambassador of fictional nations “like West Arctica, Saborga, Poulvia, and Lodonia.”
Following his arrest, the police said in a statement, “His main activities involved acting as a broker to secure work in foreign countries for companies and private individuals, as well as operating a hawala (money transfer) racket through shell companies.”
Jain also faces charges of money laundering, forgery, impersonation and possessing fake documents. Police recovered four cars bearing fake diplomatic plates and $53,500 in cash in addition to doctored passports and forged documents bearing stamps of India’s foreign ministry during the raid.
Westarctica, the country Jain claimed to be representing, is actually a US-registered nonprofit “dedicated to studying and preserving this vast, magnificent, desolate region” of Western Antarctica.
In a statement, Westarctica said it had appointed Jain as its “Honorary Consul to India” after he had made a “generous donation.” The statement added, “He was never granted the position or authority of ambassador.”
