Amid Complaints in India, a Condo Deal in Manhattan

Last Sept. 28, a group of retired Indian military officers demonstrated at Jantar Mantar, a historic site in New Delhi. "Though we are old veterans, we still have the strength to challenge your atrocity," read the placard of one protester, who was leaning on a cane.

Their animus was directed at one of the New Delhi area's biggest residential builders, Kabul Chawla. In 2008, nearly 200 military officers had put down deposits on apartments at Park Serene, a high-rise apartment complex Chawla was developing. In addition to a swimming pool, a community center and special prices for members of India's military, a big drawing card was the prospect that the officers could live together in retirement.

More than six years later, the protesters say that Chawla's company has collected almost 100 percent of the price of the Park Serene apartments from 400 buyers, payments the protesters estimate at more than $35 million. But the company has not completed the units.

"They put their life savings in it," said Brajesh Kumar, a retired army major general and spokesman for the protesting officers, who have taken their grievances to a national consumer commission. "They thought that after their retirement they would move in. It's not a happy situation for a large number of consumers."

As complaints mount against Chawla, developer of two dozen other major residential complexes near New Delhi, many of the veterans are struggling to find a place to live.

Chawla does not appear to have that problem. Even when he is more than 7,000 miles away in New York, he enjoys the comforts of a 4,050-square-foot condominium in the Time Warner Center that has five bedrooms, a media-playroom, soaring ceilings and Central Park views.

Although Chawla denies owning the apartment, saying that he stays there but that it belongs to his cousin, The New York Times has unearthed correspondence among real estate brokers involved in the apartment's purchase, as well as other sources, tying the condo to Chawla.

The ownership of the unit on the 68th floor of the Time Warner Center's south tower is obscured by a corporate veil: a Delaware company with a Singapore address and a name, NYC Real Estate Opportunities, evoking the ambitions of an international buyer.

The secrecy surrounding 68AF is not unusual. Of the 192 condos at the Time Warner Center, nearly two-thirds are owned through shell companies, a Times investigation has found. Often the names of the people behind those shell companies are shrouded in secrecy. And 68AF is among the most carefully cloaked.

When the apartment was bought outright in February 2012 for $19.4 million, the backlash against Chawla had already begun in India.

A Boom in Development

Chawla, who is in his early 40s, got his start in the real estate business more than 20 years ago when he put up a building on property owned by his father. While his family name was well known in India - his cousin was astronaut Kalpana Chawla, who died aboard the space shuttle Columbia - Chawla's company, BPTP, was little known until 2005, when he began aggressively purchasing farmland near Faridabad, a suburb of New Delhi.

By 2012, the company was overseeing more than two dozen projects on nearly 2,500 acres. It had 22,000 customers and sales of $1.6 billion, according to a company news release at the time.

Today, many of those customers appear to be unhappy. They have flooded Facebook pages, real estate forums and consumer

websites in India with complaints about BPTP and have staged protests at some of the company's properties.

In an interview at his corporate headquarters near New Delhi and in emailed responses, Chawla and his company said that BPTP was highly professional and that it was catering to the region's middle class. He acknowledged delays in some of his projects but blamed them on a "plethora" of external factors, including government setbacks in infrastructure development. Chawla's company said it hoped to deliver the military officers' apartments by this summer.

In India, customers frequently put down money for apartments and lots in advance, then continue paying as construction proceeds.

But as BPTP buyers have waited long beyond the promised delivery dates of their lots and apartments, the company has begun new projects.

"Most of the money they have used for developing other projects, buying other lands," said Ashok Rajan Agarwal, a retired executive for a state-owned power company who invested in BPTP property.

BPTP denies such allegations, but a recent ruling by a government consumer commission seems to buttress Agarwal's statement. Two buyers at another complex filed complaints in 2012 seeking the return of substantial deposits they had made on apartments beginning in 2005.

The commission ruled that BPTP had to refund the money with interest, noting that the company failed for several years to use it for the apartments but "continued to utilize the amounts deposited by the complainants" in other projects. The complex has since been completed, and BPTP says it has appealed the decision.

A Purchase in New York

By the summer of 2011, as Chawla fended off criticism back home, a buyer expressed an interest in Apartment 68AF in the Time Warner Center.

The resulting cash offer of $19.4 million was more than $7 million below the asking price for the apartment, which encompasses 5 1/2 marble baths, a 23-by-24-foot great room, his-and-her master closets and river-to-river views of the city.

When the contract was finally drawn up, it contained special language permitting the purchaser to transfer ownership to a limited liability company, which "may be owned by a Cayman Island limited liability company or a British Virgin Island limited liability company to be formed, and/or to a trust."

The contract went on to suggest that another family would occupy the unit and might become the owner. The family's name did not appear in the paperwork but was to be disclosed to the condo board. If the board did not agree to the arrangement, the deal was to be voided and the $1.9 million deposit returned. Such a transfer would not require any public filing.

Months went by before the deal finally closed. If not for a lawsuit over real estate fees, neither the terms of the contract nor a clue linking it to Chawla would have been revealed. Documents filed in that case contained email exchanges among brokers, including Julie Rose of Citi Habitats, who had represented the buyer. One of the emails refers to the first name of a figure making requests from behind the scenes: Kabul.

In an interview, Chawla acknowledged that his family had used the Time Warner Center condo. Chawla said the unit was owned by Aneil Anand, who he said was a cousin. "I don't own an apartment in New York," Chawla said.

Anand, who is listed as the purchaser in documents disclosed in the lawsuit, joined the hedge fund Duet Group in 2009 from JPMorgan Chase & Co. Anand did not respond to requests for an interview.

To further investigate the ownership, The Times contacted one of the people on the "Kabul" email, Hall F. Willkie, the president of Brown Harris Stevens. Citing the deed on 68AF, The Times asked Willkie why it was signed by Aneil Anand and not Kabul Chawla.

"I think they usually just put it in another name for public records," he replied.