A cabinet meeting last week appointed former journalist Sharad Ojha as the chair of the Nepal Insurance Authority, the regulator of the sector. Ojha has no qualifications for the post as required by Nepal’s Insurance Act.&nbsp;
His family ties to Nepali Congress president <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/deuba-5-qh371fm4">Sher Bahadur Deuba</a> has been cited as the reason he got to bypass appointment criteria.
This is just the latest example. Bending the law to appoint <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-crony-communism-exposed">cronies</a> and special interest groups to leadership positions in regulatory bodies has <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/crony-communism">become the norm in Nepal</a>.
Ojha’s predecessor was former Home Secretary Surya Prasad Silwal, who was suspended two months before the end of his term in December after the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/ciaa-traps-small-fish-lets-big-ones-go">Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA)</a> filed a corruption case against him in the Special Court. Days after Ojha’s appointment, the court cleared Silwal of corruption charges.
Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/search?q=corruption+case">Nepal’s corruption carousel</a>
Before Silwal, the Nepal Insurance Authority was led by Chiranjivi Chapagain, a relative of Chandra Dhakal of the IME Group. Chapagain is accused of granting approval to 10 insurance companies under dubious circumstances and favouring <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/business/ime-insurance">IME Life Insurance’</a>s approval.
Meanwhile, intense lobbying by interest groups with ties to both <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-government-changes-again">Prime Minister Oli</a> and PM-in-waiting Deuba allowed Santosh Narayan Shrestha’s appointment as the chair of the Securities and Exchange Board of Nepal (SEBON) in December. Shrestha promptly paid his dues to the groups that put him in office by making preparations to grant them permission to operate stock exchange.
Shrestha was preceded by hotelier Ramesh Kumar Hamal, the recommendation procedure and committee for whom were changed to ensure his appointment.
During his tenure, Hamal hastily amended a law that allowed specific companies to sell premium stocks amid ongoing debates, &nbsp;and another one allowing the operation of stock exchanges with private sector investment instead of public companies. None of this raised eyebrows.
Hamal’s predecessor Bhishma Raj Dhungana, a former Nepal Rastra Bank official, was dismissed as SEBON chair following allegations of irregularities.&nbsp;
Most of these recent individuals were appointed heads of regulatory bodies under PM Oli and Finance Minister Bishnu Paudel and probably at their behest.
The appointments at the Nepal Insurance Authority and SEBON reflect a blatant disregard for the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/federalism-rule-of-law-and-the-judiciary">rule of law</a>. Such practice is also rampant in the cooperatives and real estate sectors, where <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-risks-being-blacklisted-on-money-laundering">illegal financial dealings</a> and bad faith business is modus operandi.
Meanwhile, Energy Minister Deepak Khadka, also a hydropower entrepreneur, is set on ousting <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/from-the-nepali-press/more-than-half-of-nepal-s-electricity-imported-from-india">Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA)</a> managing director <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/latest/kulman-ghising-to-stay-on">Kulman Ghising</a>. He previously ordered the removal of Dudhkoshi Hydropower Project CEO Bimal Gurung for criticising him on <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/no-comment">social media</a>.&nbsp;
The minister has a major conflict of interest because of his involvement in private energy sector, and is pressuring parliamentary committees and regulatory bodies to amend the law to allow the sale of 50% of the shares of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/missing-pieces-of-the-hydropower-jigsaw">hydropower projects </a>during the so-called 'lock-in period', which prevents the sale of promoter shares.
Now, lobbyists have set their sights on the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB). Maha Prasad Adhikari’s tenure ends in April, and the same groups behind the appointment of the chiefs of regulatory bodies like SEBON and Nepal Insurance Authority are going door to door of governing coalition leaders to have their candidate appointed.&nbsp;
The book Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson—co-winners of last year’s Nobel Prize for Economics with economist Simon Johnson—describes how public institutions are misused, weakened, and pushed toward failure by those with access to power.
Regulatory bodies are crucial to maintaining fair competition and ethical market practices. They exist to serve Nepal’s public. However, they are being deliberately undermined by special interest groups paying off authorities for plum positions that will enrich them and their political patrons. &nbsp;
The government ordered the Department of Money Laundering to ‘wait’ as the body sought permission to take action against Ajeya Sumargi for illicit dealing.
It was thus unsurprising that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) placed Nepal on its grey list in February for failing to take effective and result-oriented action to prevent money laundering.
Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/black-white-and-grey">Black, white and grey</a>, Ramesh Kumar
The international community has raised a red flag against malgovernance, political interference, conflicts of interest, and impunity. The world is watching, but Nepal’s politico-corporate interests are too deep in greed to care.
Ramesh Kumar

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Public-Private Collusion

Nepal Rastra Bank Governor Maha Prasad Adhikari said last month that an assessment by the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) had put Nepal at risk of being placed on the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global money-laundering watchdog.
The final decision will be made during the FATF plenary 17-21 February in Paris. The country was previously greylisted from 2009-2014.
The watchdog had advised legal, policy and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/near-debt-experience">structural reforms for Nepal</a> to implement within a year. And while some laws were amended, implementation is another story.&nbsp;
“Nepal’s FATF rating has deteriorated due to the inaction against major cases of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/nepal-s-corruption-carousel">corruption</a>, tax evasion, and abuse of financial institutions,” explains Rup Narayan Bhattarai, former Director General of the Department of Money Laundering Investigation.&nbsp;
Sticking to the tradition of blame game, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-government-changes-again">Prime Minister KP Oli</a>, has blamed the delay in legal reforms on the previous Pushpa Kamal Dahal government.
The APG— of which Nepal has been a member since 2002— is an associate member of the FATF. The organisation had already placed Nepal on the observation list for failing to amend and implement necessary laws to prevent <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-figures-in-leaked-money-laundering-report">money laundering</a> after an evaluation last year.&nbsp;
The assessment looked into Nepal's efforts to combat money laundering in two parts: the first one being technical compliance— the legal and structural reforms to prevent money laundering— and the second being the effectiveness of their implementation.
Nepal has achieved relatively satisfactory results with technical compliance— the assessment found that the country had abided by at least 21 of the 40 criteria laid out by the FATF. Since the evaluation, Nepal has amended and enacted additional laws to meet an additional 10 criteria.&nbsp;
However, the evaluation found the country’s progress in effectively implementing laws to prevent money laundering to be very weak, with Nepal only ‘moderately compliant’ with four out of the 11 standards.
Bhattarai points to the lack of transparency and commitment to preventing money laundering. “It is not enough to just make laws and regulations, they must be implemented and produce noticeable results,” he says. “But we have failed to see such results, due to which our country’s international standing has deteriorated.”
Cooperatives and real estate transactions have also long been used to conceal and legitimise ill gotten wealth. Cooperatives are reluctant to provide details of suspicious financial transactions.
Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/cooperatives-leave-nepalis-high-and-dry">Cooperatives leave Nepalis high and dry</a>, Ramesh Kumar
“International authorities have taken issue with the absence of a strong legal and structural system to prevent money laundering in cooperatives and real estate,” says a government insider. “They are well aware of the absence of political will to monitor these sectors.”
In 2023, while banks and financial institutions reported details of 6,255 suspicious transactions to the Financial Intelligence Unit, cooperatives reported only two.
Following an objection by the APG last year regarding large amounts of black money circulating in cooperatives, legislators introduced a proposal to amend the Cooperatives Act to set an individual deposit limit of Rs2.5 million in cooperatives.
But the proposal was rejected after pressure from lobbyists as well as parliamentarians connected to the cooperatives sector.&nbsp;
In December, the government issued an ordinance to amend cooperative-related laws which included a provision allowing depositors to save up to Rs5 million in cooperatives depending on the scope of the institution.&nbsp;
Meanwhile, real estate agents in Nepal do not require a licence, and the government’s flexibility to accommodate <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-business-of-politics-in-nepal">wealthy businessmen</a> has meant there are no institutions to keep track of land and property dealings and investigate the suspicious financial activity.&nbsp;
“There is no monitoring to see who is buying and selling real estate at what price, and there is no legal framework to prevent money laundering in<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/kathmandu-s-unreal-real-estate-prices"> real estate</a>,” says the Nepal government official.&nbsp;
Casinos are also a breeding ground for laundering money, also lack a strong regulatory system.
Another shortcoming pointed out by the APG are delays in and ineffectiveness of investigations and prosecutions relating to money laundering. There has been international attention on scams like the Nepal Airlines Corporation Airbus 330 purchases.
In fiscal year 2022/2023, the Financial Intelligence Unit received 7,115 reports of suspicious transactions and activities and sent 505 cases for investigation. But only a few of them were ever investigated.
The Department of Money Laundering Investigation only took 12 cases to court during the first 6 months of this fiscal year and had similarly taken only a dozen cases involving a total of Rs1.74 billion last year.&nbsp;
The department was hastily set up in 2011 after the FATF warned that Nepal would be blacklisted, but so far, it hasn’t gone beyond appeasement and whitewashing.
“If money laundering cases are to be investigated, they would involve either those at the upper echelons of power or those connected to them,” a former government official who worked at the department told us, “How then would any investigation move forward?”
The Home Ministry has also been slow to prepare a list of people suspected of terrorist activities and make such a list available for monitoring even though it is an international requirement.&nbsp;
Nepal has also not worked on a new assessment report to recommend measures to prevent money laundering since the last report was prepared in 2020.
Nepal will most certainly be on that grey list later this month, and this will negatively impact the country’s reputation on the global stage as well as its foreign investment prospects.&nbsp;
In December, Nepal had received a ‘BB-’ rating from the US credit rating agency Fitch, becoming the second-highest rated country in South Asia, after India. Government officials have been suggesting that this raiting would help attract foreign investment.
As it stands, financial institutions here may bear the brunt of the grey list status. Banks may find it difficult to conduct international transactions, and transaction costs may rise, which will in turn make imports more expensive and hinder exports.&nbsp;
Nepal being on the FATF grey list also means that the government will find it more difficult to obtain financial assistance and concessional loans from donor countries and international organisations. Interest rates on loans taken by Nepal’s government and private financial institutions from abroad will also go up.
Additionally, as soon as Nepal is placed on the grey list, financial institutions will begin to closely monitor transactions made by the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/brain-drain-into-brain-gain">diaspora around the world</a>, which will affect Nepali students and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/a-long-way-to-europe">migrant workers</a> seeking to open accounts in foreign banks, as well as those <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/the-new-equaliser">sending remittances back home</a>.&nbsp;
“Any obstacles in the flow of remittance through official channels will spell a disaster for Nepal’s economy,” a government official told us.&nbsp;
Nepal government and relevant authorities must actively try to get out of the grey list as soon as possible. The FATF and APG will give Nepal a year to get off the list of countries at risk, failing which Nepal will be placed on the blacklist and be isolated from the global stage.&nbsp;
Says Bhattarai: “It is not enough to have made laws, we need results. Nepal must be committed to acting against leaders, lobbyists, and those with access and connections involved in criminal financial dealings.”

Black, white and grey

<figure><img width="2090" height="1386" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161120/636d178d9c7e80680e0ac773jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption></figcaption></figure>A global investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has revealed that well known political and business figures are using tax havens for money laundering. Among the names in the latest leaks is that of Nepal’s richest man, as well as other prominent businessmen in the country.The names are contained in the ‘Pandora Papers’ leaks, a sequel to the ‘<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/new-autocrats-global-investigative-journalism-conference-South-Africa,4058">Panama Papers</a>’ that had already exposed thousands of people around the world, as well as revealed their secret email correspondence with banks and investment partners to hide their wealth.The Washington DC-based ICIJ provided to the Centre for Investigative Journalism Nepal (CIJ) documents pertaining to Nepal that involve the Chaudhary Group, Golchha Organisation and other notable Nepalis with political connections. <img width="640" height="646" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161124/636d17909c7e80680e0ac774jpeg.jpg" alt="">The ICIJ and 600 collaborating journalists in 117 countries pored through a trove of 11.5 million leaked documents in the largest media collaboration ever to reveal the findings. The ‘data tsunami’ in the Pandora Papers reveal shady offshore dealings of people like the leaders of Ukraine and the Czech Republic, the King of Jordan, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and people from Imran Khan’s inner circle.From the leaked documents ICIJ provided CIJ, the secret correspondence and other seem to show that Nepal’s top businessmen violated the laws of the land by having investments abroad, buying and selling shares and setting up shell companies in tax havens like the British Virgin Islands, Cyprus, Mauritius, Singapore and other financial centres.Nepali investigative journalists Krishna Acharya and Ramu Sapkota led a team that analysed the Pandora Papers and found that the Nepali companies had front entities registered in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) in the names of family members and associates through which they moved money to a series of shell companies to launder money without detection. <img width="640" height="850" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161124/636d17949c7e80680e0ac775jpeg.jpg" alt="">Prominent among the names in the leaked papers is that of Binod Chaudhary, Nepal’s only known dollar billionaire who was ranked the 2,141st richest man in the world by Forbes in 2018. The Pandora Papers reveal that he has companies in the BVI in the names of his wife and three sons, Nirvana, Varun, and Rahul.The leaks provided to CIJ show that the Chaudhary family has registered the companies Cinnovation Incorporated, CG Hotels and Resorts Limited, Sensei Capital Partners Inc. in BVI, and CG Hospitality Holdings Global Pte Ltd in Singapore. Officials at Nepal Rastra Bank told CIJ that Chaudhary did not have permission to hold these investments abroad.  Chaudhary has argued that his foreign investments are all legitimate, but he has admitted to using loopholes in Nepal’s Income Tax Act allowing citizens living abroad for more than 183 days a year to invest around the world.Chaudhary says in his biography published in 2013: ‘I took advantage of this (loophole) and decided to stay abroad for more than 183 days a year and become a temporary citizen of my own country. Today, my two sons Rahul and Varun are doing business abroad as non-resident Nepalis.'In a response to CIJ's query, Binod Chaudhary's son Rahul said his group had not violated any Nepali or international laws, including those governing foreign investment. "CG and its group of companies are in partnership with some of the most respected, reputed and leading multinationals globally, information of which is readily available in the public domain," he added. "We do not wish to comment on allegations against our business partners."When CIJ showed Nepal’s former Finance Secretary Rameshore Khanal the leaked documents, he said Chaudhary had clearly misused the system because the law does not allow a Nepali citizen to take money out of the country as Chaudhary appears to have done. He and two of his relatives named in the leaks are Nepalis citizensThe Pandora Papers has minute details of company correspondence, share and money transfers and other transactions between Chaudhary family members and partners. Some of the names mentioned are Pakistani, Singaporean, Sri Lankan and Bangaldeshi. One of those involved in Cinnovation in Chaudhary’s company registered in BVI is US national of Bangladeshi descent, Abdul Awal Mintoo, who was investigated in 2018 by the Anti-corruption Commission in Dhaka over money laundering and loan extortion allegations.In releasing the Pandora Papers leaks, ICIJ says that there is a vast underworld of global money transfers that work through layers and layers of offshore shell companies that are difficult to trace.“There is a shadow economy, a shadow world out there that we are not aware of that is enriching people who are already rich. Shell companies are essentially the getaway vehicles for crime in the offshore world,” ICIJ director Gerard Ryle told Australia’s ABC tv in an interview ahead of the release of the Pandora Papers. He added: “The offshore world exacerbates poverty. It leads to inequality.” Although some of the businessmen named in the papers have been nominated to Nepal's Parliament by parties, there has not been any direct involvement of politicians in money laundering through offshore companies. <img width="640" height="916" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161124/636d17969c7e80680e0ac776jpeg.jpg" alt="">But the Centre for Investigative Journalism Nepal says politicians seem to be colluding with their business partners because there has been no investigation after <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepalis-in-tax-havens-swiss-banks-money-laundering/">its 2019 NepalLeaks</a> revelation of the <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/new-autocrats-global-investigative-journalism-conference-South-Africa,4058">Panama Papers</a> that brought out names of dozens of Nepalis with unlawful offshore companies.  ‘The silence of the regulatory bodies appears to be encouraging the Nepalis’ investment in tax haven countries. Pandora Papers is an outcome of that surprising silence,’ CIJ says. The other prominent Nepali business house implicated in the Pandora Papers is the Golchha Organisation. Leaked documents show it also has offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) under the names of its patriarch Lokmanya Golchha, his brothers late Diwakar Golchha, late Mahendra Kumar Golchha, cousin Chandra Kumar Golchha and Diwakar’s son Hitesh Golchha. Leaked documents examined by CIJ show that a Geneva-based law firm named Overseas Management opened an account at Barclays Bank in Switzerland in 2008 on behalf of Flatwood Limited operated by Golchha family members. The paper trail also shows that  Diwakar Golchha bought shares of Eastern Sugar Mills Limited in Nepal in 2008 through Flatwood Limited. Golchha Organisation is one of the pioneer industrial houses in Nepal and its founders established the Biratnagar Jute Mill nearly 70 years ago. In fact, the 2019 NepalLeaks mentioned that Golchha Organisation was the first Nepali company to bring in foreign investment from the British Virgin Islands through Flatwood to operate companies in Nepal.  Earlier CIJ investigations in 2017 showed that in a questionable deal, Golchha’s Eastern Sugar Mills was allowed by the Tax Settlement Commission to get away with paying only Rs400,000 when it owed the treasury Rs52 million in back taxes. Two members of the Commission and the director of the Inland Revenue Department are still facing corruption charges in the Special Court for granting allegedly illegal tax breaks to the Golchhas.  Political links Like Binod Chaudhary, Diwakar Golchha was also nominated by the Nepali Congress to the Constituent Assembly-Parliament in 2008, showing the political links of many of the businessmen named in the ICIJ documents.  The other person with close links to Maoist Centre leaders is Ajeya Sumargi Parajuli, who was exposed in the CIJ NepalLeaks for allegedly transferring money from Nepal to tax havens the suspected ill-gotten wealth of politicians. The papers also showed that Sumargi’s Zhodar Investments in BVI transferred $48,372,222 to his companies in Nepal in 2010. Zhodar’s co-owner is Cyprus national Sotirios Pittas, a lawyer and Sumargi business partner, the leaked documents show.  According to Pandora Papers, Sumargi also invested in Worldwide Incredible Limited in the BVI in 2011, and several other companies based in the tax haven. Some of the monies from BVI have been transferred indirectly to Sumargi’s companies in Nepal, including Hetauda Lime Industry Pvt Ltd, Everest Mineral Products Pvt Ltd, Muktishree Pvt Ltd, according to the Pandora Papers.  CIJ also found leaked documents that show Sumargi’s other company, The New Digitek getting permission to hold 50% share in Nepali mobile companies, including Nepal Telecom Private Limited.  Among the Pandora Papers is also a slew of email correspondence from BVI lawyers at Trident Trust Limited who warned that action would be taken if  Sumargi did not provide mandatory details for Zhodar Investments.  While poring through the Pandora Papers, CIJ’s investigative journalists Krishna Acharya and Ramu Sapkota found that Sumargi’s business partner in Nepal, Arjun Prasad Sharma, also registered a company in BVI in 2019.  In a convoluted money trail that involved several other shell companies, Sharma and Sumargi are seen to have worked in 2019 with the same Cypriot investment company, Sotioris Pittas &amp; Co LLC.  Other names The other prominent people named in the Pandora Papers leaks is Radhe Shyam Saraf and his family, who own the Taragaon Regency Hotel and Yak &amp; Yeti Hotel in Kathmandu. The documents that CIJ reviewed appear to show that the family has channelled money through companies in the British Virgin Islands to invest in Nepal.  CIJ also found documents in the leaked papers showing that the Saraf family are involved in companies in Belize, Lichtenstein and Mauritius and there appear to be questions regarding their investment in Hyatt International. Saraf had already been embroiled in controversy in Nepal over the Taragaon property and has been investigated by the Office of the Auditor General, the anti-corruption agency and the Ministry of Tourism. The other Nepali businessmen mentioned in the Pandora Papers who have invested in suspected shell companies offshore tax havens include Rajendra Shakya, Purushottam Poudyal, Sudhir Mittal, and others.  Detailed report on the Pandora Papers in Nepali and English of the Centre for Investigative Journalism Nepal (CIJ): <a href="https://cijnepal.org.np/">https://cijnepal.org.np</a>

Nepal’s richest man in the Pandora Papers

<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108131144/636a4fd29c7e80680e04fd2bjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2922" height="1834"/>Nepal will be evaluated for international money laundering activities by the APG (Asia Pacific Group) of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) during 2019, and may be blacklisted if the government does not adequately crack down on illegal cross-border money transfers.If Nepal is not able to come up with a workable mechanism to identify criminal activities and bring offenders, including prominent businesspersons and politicians, under the purview of the law by the end of 2020 it faces the danger of being blacklisted by the task force.The FATF was established in 1999 to track down and stop money laundering and funding of terrorist activities around the world. Nepal is a member of its associate organisation APG, which investigates regional member countries. With an investigation due, Nepal had hastily passed the Money Laundering Prevention Act in 2008, but took 2 years to implement it.An APG working committee evaluated Nepal, and concluded that its attempts to control money laundering were not effective enough. On February 2010, it put Nepal on an international monitoring list. Nepal then established a Money Laundering Investigation Department. With the help of the IMF and World Bank, the government created legal structures and adopted policies to prevent money laundering. After it took these steps, it was removed from the international monitoring list, which meant that it was not prohibited from doing financial transactions with other countries or international organisations.Though Nepal improved its legal stance on money laundering after the first international investigation, it does not seem to have made much progress since then in actually preventing tax evasion and money laundering.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/so-youd-like-to-do-business-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">So you’d like to do business in Nepal?</a>, Ritu Pradhan MallaIn the past, the APG had evaluated Nepal on the basis of its legal safeguards and policies. However, in future it will be looking for concrete action to see if Nepal implemented the 40 suggestions and 11 results that it made in 2010. “The next evaluation will be focused less on laws and more on implementation and results,” admits Binod Lamichhane, spokesperson of the Money Laundering Investigation Department. “So if our implementation remains as weak as it is, it could create problems for us.”Experts say the government will find it very difficult to implement its own laws because so many of those involved are powerful businessmen enjoying political protection. “If the Money Laundering Prevention Act is implemented, then politicians and officials will have a hard time showing the source of their earnings. Which is why implementaction of the Act never became a priority for Nepal. Clearly, it was created only as a showpiece to assuage foreigners,” a former director general of the department confided.Indeed, although everyone agrees that corruption and tax evasion are rampant in Nepal, there is no record of prominent persons being investigated for it. However, since the APG will be investigating on its own next year, the department has been forced to conduct its own secret probes. Director General Rup Narayan Bhattarai says he cannot speak about the investigations at the moment but according to sources, well known Nepalis, including a businessman who is expanding outside Nepal, another tycoon who created an international business network after the 2006 movement, a prominent trader accused of gold smuggling and an industrialist who suddenly switched to tourism, are under investigation.However, the going is not expected to be easy, because the Money Laundering Investigation Department lacks coordination with other powerful agencies, which is international practice and considered essential to investigate money laundering. Though the law states that Nepal Rastra Bank should coordinate with other agencies and provide information to the department about suspicious financial transactions, the implementation of this law is weak.“Since our mechanism for identifying illegal wealth is weak, we are not able to figure out if the money, property, shares, gold, etc, deposited in banks are legal or not,” says an official of the bank. “So at the moment we are unable to effectively pass on useful information.”Currently, FATF has blacklisted Iran and North Korea, while 12 countries, including Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Cambodia, Ethiopia, and Syria, are currently on its international monitoring list. Nepal risks joining these countries if the APG evaluation does not meet international criteria for transparency.

Nepal risks being blacklisted on money laundering

<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101132/636a22c09c7e80680e0417a6jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="542"/>In February 2015 The International Consortium of Investigative journalists (<a href="https://www.icij.org/">ICIJ</a>) revealed that Nepalis held Rs5 billion in secret Swiss bank accounts. Most people thought the money must have been parked there by Nepal’s corrupt politicians.But after the Centre for Investigative Journalism Nepal (<a href="http://cijnepal.org.np/category/english-posts/">CIJ Nepal</a>) went through 3,000 pages of documents from <a href="https://www.icij.org/investigations/swiss-leaks/">Swiss Leaks</a>, <a href="https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/">Offshore Leaks</a>, the <a href="https://www.icij.org/investigations/panama-papers/">Panama</a> and <a href="https://www.icij.org/investigations/paradise-papers/">Paradise Papers</a>, the names were of Nepal’s top business people. Even foreigners had deposited money in the banks using Nepali addresses and documents.Savings of Nepalis in the banks have now crossed Rs50 billion, email correspondence between CIJ Nepal and Swiss banks show.The records also reveal that Nepalis started to deposit money in Swiss banks the year after the Maoist insurgency began in Nepal in 1996.Nepalis had Rs1.25 billion in the Swiss National Bank in 1996, but that figure doubled to Rs4.1 billion by 2006, when the war ended. Nepalis deposits in the two years after the conflict declined to Rs3.9 billion. Records show that Nepali have withdrawn Rs 15.6 billion from Swiss banks so far.The biggest Nepali depositers in a Swiss bank are Minu Shah Chhibber, and her two sons who live in the UK. They had Rs2.6 billion in Swiss banks in 2006-7. Even some foreigners are found to have used Nepali documents to deposit their money in Swiss banks, including an Israeli national using a Nepali passport to open an account with ‘Kathmandu’ as his address. Other account holders who have Nepal connections are Indians.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101132/636a22c39c7e80680e0417a7jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1250" height="813">Despite it banking secrecy laws, an agreement between the Swiss government and the European Union in 2015 after the Swiss Leaks ends the exclusive confidentiality, and the Swiss agree to provide account details if demanded. The ICIJ says Swiss banks have profited from dictators, corrupt politicians, business persons who evade taxes and organisations that make money through the illegal transaction of weapons and drugs by allowing them to deposit their earnings.The country with the biggest Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Nepal is not China, India or the United States as one may presume, but the tax haven state of the British Virgin Islands. Of the total Rs137.67 billion received as FDI in the last two decades, the share of the British Virgin Islands (BVI) accounts for 45%. They obtained approval from the Nepal government to invest in and establish industries worth Rs8 billion.In 2017, the Panama Papers revealed that seven Nepalis including Upendra Mahato, the founder of Non-resident Nepalis Association, had invested in tax haven states. The ICIJ and CIJ Nepal collaborated in digging more into these investments, and found that Nepali businesses have used tax havens to evade taxes in Nepal or to transfer the illegally earned money to launder it. The money was then repatriated to Nepal under foreign direct investment (FDI).Investigations show that Birendra Mahato, a former lawmaker and central committee member of Federal Socialist Forum party, his elder brother Upendra Mahato, Niraj Govinda Shrestha, a non-resident Nepali and Ajeya Raj Sumargi, a businessman, are involved in this elaborate money laundering scheme. They used the sale of the telecom company Ncell to avoid paying capital gains tax in Nepal.After a G-7 Summit established the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) to combat money laundering and terrorist financing the Paris-based organisation has been blacklisting countries. The FATF blacklists countries not cooperating in anti-money laundering financing. Nepal committed to abide by the criteria drawn up by the FATF and its Asia-Pacific Group in 2012 and passed the Money Laundering-related Act.  However, given these revelations, there is still a possibility that Nepal could be blacklisted in future.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101132/636a22c69c7e80680e0417a8jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1250" height="797">“While Nepal avoided the scrutiny and monitoring criteria of the global community in 2014 due to legislation and institutional reforms, there has not been effective implementation of the laws,” states Finance Minister Yuba Raj Khatiwada’s white paper on the economy last March.Nepali companies have also dealt with Mossack Fonseca, the intermediary law firm in BVI that helps businesses to want to launder their money by finding them legal loopholes in tax haven countries. In 2015, the ICIJ published details of the firm in the Panama Papers, after which it closed down.Panama Papers emails show that in 2008 Nepal’s Milap Group approached Mossack Fonseca to bid for a tender from the Nepal Supreme Court calling for an international consultant for Judicial Mapping and Judicial Assessment for a project on legal and judicial reforms. Milap Group emailed to Mossack Fonseca proposing to jointly apply for the tender, which a Mossack Fonseca official declined, saying the two could collaborate in future. Milap Group has been involved with foreign companies printing excise stickers for Inland Revenue Department, bank notes for Nepal Rastra Bank and passport printing and supply of Ministry of Foreign Affairs.Another company linked to Mossack Fonseca is Nepal Ventures registered in BVI. It is not clear from the Panama Papers who was listed as the owner, but a company with a similar name is registered at the Office of Company Registrar in Nepal with Dhanusha lawmaker Juli Kumari Mahato as main investor. The company has 20 percent share capital investment in United Telecom Limited. Mahato is the wife of Raghubir Mahaseth, Minister of Physical Infrastructure and Transport and sister of Upendra Mahato and Birendra Mahato. When asked, Juli Kumari Mahato denied having investments abroad, and said “it is a mere coincidence” that a company with similar name existed in the British Virgin Islands.The ICIJ and CIJ-Nepal investigations have also shown how money is laundered from tax havens into Nepal as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Records show that the Saurabh Group chaired by Bishnu Prasad Neupane, brought foreign investment from the BVI to build a hotel in Bhaktapur, but construction was stopped after Madhyapur Thimi Municipality found the 17-storey building only had permission for a five-floor structure.Saurabh Group brought the investment for the hotel from the BVI-based Global Technology and Trademark Company, and the Rs1.94 billion proposal was approved by the Department of Industry in 2013.Sulav Agrawal is the director of four companies under the Saurabh Group and brought Rs300 million in FDI from a UAE-based company to manufacture soap and betel nuts in Birganj. Agrawal is also vice-chairman of Shankar Group, but the UAE company has the same name as the one based in the BVI: Global Technology and Trademark which was also found to be evading taxes in its ventures in Parsa district.Krishna Holdings Ltd of Hong Kong has a 45% stake in Sarbottam Cement Pvt Ltd of Nawalparasi, also run by the Saurabh Group. The remaining 55% shares are owned by Neupane and his relatives. Just like how Global Technology and Trademark is operating out of not just the UAE but also the BVI, the Hong Kong-based Krishna Holdings is related to the UAE-based Krishna International.Krishna International Ltd has mentioned on its website that it has invested in as many as 22 countries including Nepal, Mauritius and Cyprus. Ramesh Kumar Sawarthia has brought Rs29.5 million from Hong Kong to build a commercial complex in Gyaneswor, Kathmandu in 2005.The British Virgin Islands-based Global Technology and Trademark has also invested Rs 240 million in the printing and lamination sector. This company has no Nepali partner, but Saurabh Group’s Jagadamba Synthetic and Quality Roto Packaging is also in the printing and lamination business.Four companies in which Saurabh Group’s Neupane has invested, have benefitted from Nepal’s controversial tax settlement policy which allowed them to get away with paying just 3.45% of the total taxes due to the state after a Commission formed by Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat in 2015 waived payments.The CIJ Nepal Nepal investigation based on the Paradise Papers leaks obtained by the German paper Süddeutsche Zeitungin 2017 also unearthed links between Nepal’s Laxmi Cement and tax havens in the BVI, the Isle of Man, Seychelles as well as two Indian investors. Shareholders of Laxmi Cement are also involved in KEPY Cement Udyog of Dhading and Ghorahi Cement of Dang.The Act Restricting Investment Abroad, 1964 bars Nepalis from investing in a foreign country, but the ICIJ and CIJ-Nepal investigation found that 55 Nepalis have invested in foreign countries which includes well-known captains of industry in Nepal and non-resident Nepalis. Although the law does not bar NRNs from investing abroad, but there are questions about their offshore companies.Former lawmaker Birendra Mahato, who is currently a central member of the Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum-Nepal, has invested in the ‘OJSC Amkodor Holding Limited Company’ in Belarus with his brother Upendra and another overseas Nepali Niraj Govinda Shrestha, and a foreign partner Romeo Abdo, who also happens to be linked to the Ncell tax-evasion case. Abdo, who is of Lebanese origin has been doing business in Belarus, represented the TeliaSonera in Ncell in whose ownership transfer of nearly Rs61 billion (the amount has reached Rs 72 billion now) was implicated in evading Nepal’s capital gains tax. Birendra Mahato admitted having the investment seven years ago, but not anymore, and denied knowing Abdo.For full five-part investigation go to <a href="http://cijnepal.org.np/category/english-posts/">CIJ Nepal</a>

Nepalis in tax havens, Swiss banks, money laundering

At the stroke of the midnight hour, it finally came to something everyone in Nepal’s oldest and biggest party had been dreading — a split.
Not that this was anything new. The Nepali Congress (NC) had splintered twice before and the main protagonist both times was five-time prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba. After the GenZ uprising and being physically mauled and his house looted and set on fire on 9 September Deuba had said he was stepping aside, but it seems old ambitions die hard.
The showdown between the Gagan Thapa-Bishow Prakash Sharma camp and Deuba came to a head on Wednesday as the establishment leadership decided to suspend Thapa, Sharma, and Farmullah Mansoor for five years to punish them for daring to challenge the leadership and hold a special general convention.&nbsp;
Bhrikuti Mandap in the centre of Kathmandu is the venue for trade exhibitions, but this week it was where an exhibition of everything that is wrong with Nepali politics was on full display — lack of internal party democracy and an unaccountable gerontocracy clinging on to power.&nbsp;
Thapa and Sharma had gathered the support of 62% of the NC membership at their convention and chose Gagan Thapa as the new party leader and proposed him as a prime ministerial candidate after the 5 March election.
Deuba’s allies had refused to attend or endorse the special general convention, and were adamant about holding a general convention to choose a new party head after the election. Thapa, Sharma and their supporters argued that the party faced ignominious defeat in the polls if Deuba insisted on being prime minister again.
The events of September 2025 have cast a long shadow over Nepali politics, with many new parties and alliances pledging to represent the aspirations of the GenZ movement. However, that realisation does not seem to have dawned on the tried, tested and failed leadership of the NC, UML and the NCP where the party leaders have held on to power by sidelining all rivals. &nbsp;
Thapa and Sharma were NC general secretaries held multiple rounds of discussions to convince Deuba to accept their eight-point demand that for the party’s and the country’s sake his time was up, and he should cut and cut cleanly. Despite having already handed over the party leadership to Purna Bahadur Khadka in September, Deuba refused to step down.&nbsp;
‘What demands has the Nepali Congress been unable to reconcile that it is headed for a split? There is no ideological dispute, just a proposal to make it easier to go for the election,’ noted journalist and author Narayan Wagle. ‘If those who have been in politics for so many years cannot reach an agreement, what have they learned in life and what hope is there for the country?’
Gagan Thapa was elected unopposed as the new party president on Thursday midnight, with Sharma and Pushpa Bhusal appointed vice-presidents. Thapa has said backroom talks are still ongoing though mediators, but for all intents and purposes the split seems irreconcilable.&nbsp;
The million dollar question now is: who gets to be the real Nepali Congress? Who gets the NC’s tree election symbol at the polls?
Both the Thapa and Deuba factions have written to the Election Commission (EC) laying claim to the party and its symbol. Whatever the EC decides, with less than two months to go for the polls, the dispute over its legitimacy will almost certainly have to be decided in the courts.
Deuba and his counterpart K P Oli in the UML have been unwilling or unable to fathom the level of outrage that young Nepalis feel about their parties. They have shown an inability to heed the call for institutional overhaul within parties and in Nepal’s political culture post-September. Second generation leaders within those parties who have grown old waiting for reform, seem to have better internalised the need for internal restructuring.&nbsp;
Oli has managed to hold on to power after displaying increasing authoritarianism within his UML, while Deuba has shown an unwillingness to bow out of leadership with grace. Both have squandered away their legacy.
For Gagan Thapa, the events of Thursday was a culmination of his long-standing claim for leadership change within the NC coupled with a compulsion to address the demands of the youth movement to maximise gains for his party this election. Just like Deuba, Thapa’s house was also looted and torched during the September protests.
Thapa told Onlinekhabar on Thursday: “Our belief was that we cannot go into elections under the present circumstances under [Sher Bahadur Deuba’s] leadership and with him as the party’s prime ministerial candidate. We would lose.”
The special general convention has taken further steps for reform, endorsing amendments to the party statue, which has set term limits for key leadership positions, including a one-term limit for party president, two-term limit for prime minister, three for a ministerial position, and four terms for a directly elected member of Parliament. Meanwhile, party members are only allowed to become lawmakers through the Proportional Representation system for one term.&nbsp;
If Thapa’s leadership holds legitimacy, this new chapter for the NC might come as a welcome change to young Nepalis who have been calling for leadership overhaul and internal party reforms within the establishment parties. But it may also come at the cost of the NC’s core base. It remains to be seen which side tips the scale at the polls.&nbsp;
The NC’s infighting and institutional shake-up has also posed fresh concerns about how it will affect the election schedule just as it looked as though all the mainstream political parties were finally on board and preparing for the polls. With voting barely weeks away, Nepal’s political parties are still too busy cleaning up their own house to give too much time to work on their platforms, agendas and serious campaigning
Historically, political break-ups and make-ups in Nepal are not set in stone. Even the newest alliance between Rabi Lamichhane’s RSP and Kulman Ghising’s UNP did not even last 12 days. &nbsp;Balen Shah is set to resign from his mayor position in the next and has gotten into the thick of election preparation with the RSP. His next step will be to choose which constituency he is going to contest from.
Meanwhile, in the light of a new day, the two NC factions may still decide that breaking up is hard to do when they are so close to elections, and the political stakes are so high.&nbsp;

Grand split in Nepal’s grand old party

The India Art Fair (IAF) advertises itself as ‘the biggest event in India’s cultural calendar … a leading platform’ for art collectors who can discover modern and contemporary art from South Asia.&nbsp; For this year’s ticketed event on 5-8 February in New Delhi, more than 133 exhibitors from 14 countries will be representing top artists from their networks. Danfe Arts, a touring art space from Kathmandu, will participate in the Galleries Section of IAF’s 17th edition featuring a booth with works by six Nepali artists.&nbsp; One of them is Sanjeep Maharjan, Assistant Professor for Sculpture at Kathmandu University, who will showcase his claywork as part of Danfe Arts’ entourage. In 2024, Maharjan curated a show for Danfe Arts at Takpa Gallery titled, ‘Unfolding the City’. The IAF prefers to showcase skilled artists who have honed their practice over many years. Much like various biennales and residencies that have been popping up increasingly in Asia, the Fair delves into sociopolitical issues of the region such as many comissioned works including <a href="https://indiaartfair.in/exhibitor/yogesh-barve-supported-by-art-charlie" target="_blank">Yogesh Barve</a>’s installation entitled ‘I am not your Dalit’ featured at the feastival last year.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260115110136_13f262546fca46c0fe4d76f758a694afe7c0c1cfee5bf74eb4f257f78734f8f2.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20260115110136_13f262546fca46c0fe4d76f758a694afe7c0c1cfee5bf74eb4f257f78734f8f2" data-rendition-name="original" width="989" height="1500" loading="lazy" alt="Nepali artists at India Art Fair"> <figcaption>Anil Shahi's Hand of Hope, Oil on Canvas, 36 x 60 inches. Exhibiting work at IAF.</figcaption> </figure>  As the name implies, it is a grand bazaar where artists and their agents show up, to be seen — a powerful regional platform where creativity merges with commercial interests. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Artists have a reputation for being weak at business.&nbsp; And in Kathmandu, where the contemporary art scene has been steadily expanding since the early aughts, more and more creatives are seeking platforms like IAF and collaborators like Danfe Arts in order to boost their portfolios. A NEW COURSE In 2022, I was invited to participate in a formal group discussion by founder of and curator at Danfe Arts Shivangi Bansal who was preparing to chart a new course with her Danfe Journal. The journal included photos of artworks as well as writings about art and helped bridge the gap between art and the Nepali public’s understanding of associated processes. Contemporary art and literature is considered a niche activity. Proper marketing and outreach is required to make the product accessible to the average consumer. Besides, consistency can also be an issue. Too often, energetic graduates might register organisations and launch initiatives only to burn out within a year or so. Nepali society would benefit more from a sustained effort with a long-term vision rather than trendy initiatives that look bright and shiny. Danfe Arts discontinued the journal but continued to engage with Nepal’s art community, like facilitating a commission for Mini Tamang by the India Art Fair (IAF) in 2025, as part of IAF’s Young Collector’s Program. Tamang’s artwork, ‘Evocative Waves’, was installed at New Delhi’s Stir Art gallery last year. In 2024, Danfe Arts had organised a group exhibition called ‘A Lake That Once Was’ in New Delhi’s Bikaner House to coincide with the India Art Fair, which listed the exhibition as part of its parallel programs. This meant the Nepali artists received more visibility and value among IAF’s much larger audience.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2026011804014_2a15d57a63c375503965a41396b22c006152368a018450d2617f4c8c076ccc74.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="2026011804014_2a15d57a63c375503965a41396b22c006152368a018450d2617f4c8c076ccc74" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="998" loading="lazy" alt="arts"> <figcaption>A Lake That Once Was, 2024 at Bikaner House, Delhi.</figcaption> </figure>  Since its inception, Danfe Arts has put out an eclectic mix of programs, demonstrating innovative thinking and effort. With its multi-platform approach, Danfe Arts has collaborated with restaurants like Mezze, putting up an exhibition in November 2025, ‘Bhoye - The Feast’. Danfe Arts is also cultivating relationships with specific artists based on synergies and sensibilities.&nbsp; The history of art practice in Nepal is long and illustrious, but due to political and geographical constraints, esteemed artists have been sheltered and confined within our national borders.&nbsp; By featuring these six artists for the 2026 edition of IAF, Danfe Arts is helping them make regional connections. And as our artists and gallerists show up on global platforms, they might in turn compel Nepalis to view more critically the value of art and how creative practices can contribute positively to society. As technology takes over and AI bots spam the Internet, the issue of originality might become tantamount to survival. We should take risks in our professional pursuits in order to design new communal models of exchange. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; India Art Fair New Delhi 5-8 February&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2026011804014_f226a31af8a33f8da5e7359886289de3fd1b2db17697b96b909404e582d75124.png" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="2026011804014_f226a31af8a33f8da5e7359886289de3fd1b2db17697b96b909404e582d75124" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1875" loading="lazy" alt="arts"> </figure>

Nepali artists at India Art Fair

Only a handful of people who witnessed the 1934 megaquake as children are still alive. And the memories of 2015 are fading fast.&nbsp;
We were shaken, but have not stirred into action. We have not even started preparing to be prepared for the inevitable, for it is not a question of ‘if’ but ‘when’.&nbsp;
Thursday 15 January was National Earthquake Safety Day commemorating the 1934 disaster that killed 10,000 people in Kathmandu Valley at a time when its population was barely 100,000.
Nepal is in an active seismic zone, and a really big one is overdue in the seismic gap in western Nepal where there has not been a megaquake for 500 years. The 7.8M quake in 2015 did not completely release the tectonic stress below Central Nepal.
An 8M+ earthquake epicentred in western Nepal will be even more violent than the 2015 one in Kathmandu and will be powerful enough to cause destruction across northern India as well.&nbsp;
We Nepalis are resilient, but we are also complacent and fatalistic. How else does one explain the unsafe and unplanned building construction in Kathmandu, Pokhara and other towns despite frequent reminders of what quakes can do?&nbsp;
Most designs are ad hoc and follow no engineering logic. Reinforced Cement Concrete (RCC) is now widespread across the country since such structures mostly withstood the 2015 event. But structural engineers say most concrete buildings are substandard, and can be death traps. Also, the country lacks equipment and training for search and rescue in cement houses.&nbsp;
FIRE HAZARD
If an earthquake struck Kathmandu on a windy winter evening, there is the added risk of fires from gas cylinders in collapsed buildings spreading across the densely packed city core. Fire trucks will not be able to reach those areas because the streets will be blocked.
Seismic risk is now amplified by climate breakdown. Nepal now needs to factor in the co-hazard of massive avalanches and Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) triggered by future earthquakes. There are 41 potentially dangerous glacial lakes in the region, and 27 of them are in Tibet feeding rivers that flow into Nepal. A megaquake there could cause multiple simultaneous GLOFs.&nbsp;
If the 2015 earthquake had not happened on a Saturday, tens of thousands of children could have been killed in the 7,000 schools that were flattened. More than 2,500 government buildings came down, and would have killed and trapped many if it had not been a weekend.
Schools and health facilities retrofitted before the disaster were unscathed, and served as shelters for survivors. Chhatrapati Free Clinic (CFC) was reinforced three years before the earthquake for Rs5.2 million, and with support from National Society of Earthquake Technology (NSET), 800 community members were trained in search and rescue.
Bhuwaneswori Secondary School in Bhaktapur and Bal Bikas Secondary School in Kathmandu both survived 2015 because they had been retrofitted. Singha Darbar, the Supreme Court and the Department of Roads buildings were also made seismic resistant after 2015 quake, but the arson attacks on 9 September gutted them.
While many private residential homes built after 2015 continue to flout building codes, municipalities are now stricter. New schools and colleges, hospitals and high rises now have to meet stringent requirements for seismic resistance.
Nepal is a hotspot for many types of disasters — earthquakes, floods, droughts, glacial outbursts, wildfires. These are not ‘natural’ disasters, they are human induced. Earthquakes do not kill people, poorly-built buildings do. Climate breakdown is anthropogenic.&nbsp;
Waiting for a disaster to strike means we have waited too long. Search and rescue readiness are well and good, but much more important is preparedness — seismic resistance structures especially of public buildings, strict zoning to establish open spaces, pre-positioning supplies and simulated drills.
We do not know how much time we have before the next one. But it is not too late to start preparing. &nbsp;
Sonia Awale

Shaken, but not stirred

The series <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/looking-good-by-doing-good">Nepal Made</a> profiles world-class Nepali products and the people behind them. Deepak Acharya was born and raised in Simara, before his uncle took him to Pokhara when he was only in sixth grade. After class, he helped sell jackets and outdoor gear at his uncle's Lakeside store. &nbsp; Twenty-two years later, &nbsp;Acharya is still selling jackets. Not international brands like he used to, but products of his own outdoor gear company, DOLPO.&nbsp; Acharya and his brother-in-law, Krishna Ammai, started making and selling jackets and gear for international companies out of Thamel. After losing his business partner in the 2015 earthquake, he was done selling imported items. He launched his own line of outerwear, named after Nepal’s rugged and remote district, known for its stunning arid landscape. The careful selection of the name DOLPO paid off. It took off, providing a high-quality, affordable Nepal-made alternative to foreign companies.&nbsp; “A lot of work went into choosing the name Dolpo,” says Acharya, who considered what came into people’s minds when they heard the name of a place with double-O sound. “I wanted a brand that local customers would instantly relate to toughness and mountains.” The elegant logo reflects this as well, made up of two overlapping rounded triangles denoting mountains with a third peak in the middle. Underneath is ‘DOLPO’ in upper case sans serif.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260116120148_968d9354094049265372d851d0e44e16ae4fc86b5631481e365e6e977f13d37d.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20260116120148_968d9354094049265372d851d0e44e16ae4fc86b5631481e365e6e977f13d37d" data-rendition-name="original" width="854" height="1280" loading="lazy" alt="Dolpo NT"> <figcaption>Photo: DOLPO</figcaption> </figure>  RIGHT QUALITY, RIGHT PRICE “Our philosophy is Right quality, Right price,” says co-founder Deepak Acharya, adding with a smile that the pricing strategy of a particular competitor has made business easy: “The employees at North Face may sell North Face, but they wear Dolpo.” The rebranding was so successful that Acharya regrets not launching it sooner. The reason for the success is that the outdoor gear market in Nepal has taken off with more and more domestic tourists trekking in the high mountains to share their adventures on social media.&nbsp; Nepalis seem to be consciously choosing sustainable, Nepal made products of international quality. Acharya says: “Of course, there will always be a demographic that only wears North Face, or Sonam. But we have the right design, right price philosophy.”&nbsp; DOLPO uses fabric and material mainly from Japan, and adheres to strict quality control. The reversible down jackets, windcheaters, shorts, fleece-lined pants, trekking trousers, backpacks, and polo shirts can be bought through its website, or two exclusive flagship stores in Sorakhutte and Thamel Chok. “After the rebrand, we slowly made a digital platform, marketed online, and worked with a delivery company to get items directly to buyers,” says Acharya. “We have no brokers or middlemen to keep prices low for the consumer.” DOLPO is a family business with Acharya’s mother and sister also involved, and nephew Nishant Ammai driving digital sales. Acharya points out that there is a lot of business opportunity in Nepal, as there are too many low-quality products being sold at too high a price. &nbsp;“The market is begging for an auto-correction,” he says. For Nepal’s pessimistic youth who are fleeing the country, Acharya urges patience: “The younger generation wants shortcuts. The mindset is to set up a venture and in three years they will be set for life. But this is not how success works.” “Choose a field, put in ten years of effort, really learn about it, and then you will see the vast possibility present in Nepal,” he continues.&nbsp; Last month, the DOLPO logo was seen on the jerseys of the Biratnagar Kings in NPL 2. The company made hats, jackets, and jerseys for star-studded cricket players including Lokesh Bam, Sandeep Lamichhane, Faf Du Plessis, and Martin Guptill. The Kings finished second in the group, and although Acharya is a football fan, he is happy to contribute to the rise of cricket in Nepal. &nbsp;&nbsp;

money-laundering