The owner of Sakura Foundation Private Limited, also known as Sakura Japanese Language School, has allegedly swindled huge amount of money from at least half a dozen jobless Nepali youths. Pandav Raj Karki, the chairman of the language institute, has gone out of contact after collecting a staggering amount of money from 17 jobless youths.

Karki had collected from Rs 200,000 to Rs one million from each of them promising jobs in Japan.

Mira Manandhar, a resident of of Sitapaila in Kathmandu, had given Karki Rs 400,000 last year. Karki had assured her that she would get a lucrative job in Japan within three months of handing over money.

One year down the line, however, Mira, let alone flying to Japan, is still struggling to recover her money. “It has been almost 15 months since my wife handed over the amount to him (Karki),” Mira´s husband Ganesh told Republica, adding, “Initially, he kept asking for some more time. But lately, he has been refusing to meet us. All three of his mobiles are switched-off.”

A group of Karki´s victims on Monday picketed the foundation´s office at Sankhamul in Kathmandu. Some of them have lodged complaints at the New Baneshwar police office with the hopes of getting their money back. All of them said Karki has remained elusive ever since they began pressing him to return their money.

Pawan Gautam, who was also present at the picketing on Monday, said, “One of my brothers paid Rs 1 million to Karki. But, he did not fulfill his promise. When I asked him to return my brother´s money, he threatened me to keep quiet. He boasted that neither police nor thugs can cause any harm to him.”

Karki has not turned up at his office for the last few days, apparently fearing the wrath of the youths he swindled. Dev Thapa, one of the staffers at the foundation´s office, said that he would have Karki call back to Republica. But he did not contact our office till Monday evening.

Sakura Foundation, which is not registered at the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE) despite functioning as a manpower agency, has been teaching Japanese language, culture and tradition to Nepali youths who want to go to Japan.

Published on: 6 September 2011 | Republica