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Capt C Kishore, Director, Arrow Aviation Solutions writes
Dear ASA Students,
At the outset I am sure those who took the Psychometric test under me for the ASA-KFA program, would remember me and my steadfast criticism of students who did not perform well. Anyways, we had severed ties with ASA after they did not renew the contract with us and inspite of that on personal requests from Hasher Khan, Reny and also their Indian Representatives (Study Abroad), I continued doing tests for 3 more months. Later realized that I was being conned and would never get paid for the tests done on the pretext that I had not released results… that’s obvious, why should I release the results unless we are assured of being paid for our services. Repeated phone calls to Hasher/Reny/Sergio yielded no result and when I did a bit of research I was sure that ASA would shut down sooner than later and I had predicted this as early as Nov’2007 after the KFA fall out. In fact I had advised a few students who were in touch with me to get out before it is too late. I was told by these students that Prince has threatened not to return the money if anyone leaves.
Just some food for thought from my visit to Atwater from 4th July to 9th July’2008. I went there on request of few parents and Study Abroad, Chennai to help students secure transfers to better flight schools and also organize a good attorney to file a law suit. Firstly my observation was that there are far too many groups of students and each group with their personal agenda on how to solve the situation, unfortunately I found most of the groups far too immature in their actions as well as long term objectives, it appeared as if they had lost focus on why they had gone to USA. I do not blame them considering the trauma they would have undergone after being evicted from the barracks and realizing that their flying dream has crash landed.
1. As Bhavna brought out, Who is “Prince”? if you just go back a few years behind you will realise that apparently he started out as a Flight Instructor in Amritsar Flying School, Punjab, where there are unconfirmed reports that he was involved in cases of fraud following which he fled to USA/Canada.
2. Can Kingfisher be indemnified from the whole scene as they play a major role in the whole deal, most of the kids joined ASA because of the KFA (Kingfisher Airlines) tie up, inspite of knowing that they were going to pay more than other flight schools. The fact lies that ASA continued to use the KFA tie up to lure new students even after the fall out. How come KFA never did a audit on a flight school they endorsed for their cadet program? Which should have been a mandatory practise in view of KFA allowing ASA to use their logo for co-branding…. this beats me totally… unless Prince had been paying KFA officials responsible for such an audit.
3. $4.4 million and counting, I am not a great finance expert, but being a Pilot and an aviation consultant with thorough knowledge on what goes into running a flight school from fuel, maintenance, aircraft lease, spares, landing charges,etc etc….I can safely say that it is next to impossible to expend such a large amount of money in such a short period of time. Well the finance experts might want to prove me wrong by putting pen to paper, yet they would fail miserably. I visited the ASA ramp in Atwater, personally and saw that there were hardly 7 or 8 airplanes on the ramp, wonder whatever happened to the 40 odd aircraft if they were actually owned by ASA. Well if they were on lease then on what did Reny/ Prince spend money on.
4. I am sorry to say but, after extensive talks with various Attorneys I can say that recovery of the money of all the students may not be possible if they file for Bankruptcy under Chapter 7 of the Federal Law, but still a lot depends on discovery of assets within the USA to recover the money. Knowing Prince and Reny, I am sure there is no money in USA coz I don’t think either of them is so foolish to have assets in USA and are waiting for those assets to be attached through a Court injunction. Yes, sending them behind bars maybe a probable proposition, even though it is too early to say that. So, basically there are far too many variables and let us all accept the fact that no miraculous recovery of fees paid is going to happen overnight.
5. I was told that the Indian Embassy in SFO has provided 2 attorneys who are willing to fight the law suit against ASA, without any money being paid upfront and want 40% of the money recovered as attorney fees, which I feel is ridiculous. I wonder what the hell is the Indian Embassy doing, are they trying to get the students be duped of their rightful claim of damages for what they have undergone. I would rather pay the attorney his fees and enjoy the money he recovers as damages. Because if there is money to be recovered from assets then I might as well as recover my complete money. How do we know whether there is money to be recovered, well that can only be ascertained through a thorough investigation by a competent financial investigator. Please keep in mind that this is a huge lawsuit and the claim for damages can amount to as high as $5 million upwards. even that might be an understatement. So just tread the road ahead with caution, those offering help may not actually be a knight in shining Armour.
As they always say advise is always free, whether you take it or leave it is your choice…. so here goes my two pence on this issue to all of you ASA students.
1. Those with funds crunch right now, try and organize funds enough to fund your Private at least, get your PPL and head back to India, put your head down and study, clear your DGCA papers and then re assess your finances and try and get into Indigo or Air India Express cadet program, which shall at least assure you a job in the current volatile market.
2. Those who can afford to complete their training and are not a part of the KFA cadet program, you better think about getting yourself a CFI and work towards time building before getting back to India, try getting add-on ratings on King Air B200 or a Citation CJ2, so that the chances of your enjoyability increase in Corporate sector.
3. Along with your CPL get yourself an Aviation Management Diploma from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University so that you can get placement in Airline Operations while you slowly work your way back towards the flight deck.
I wish you guys all the best in all your future endeavors and all of you are most welcome to mail me at kishore@arrowaviationsolutions.com.
Happy Landings
Capt C Kishore Director, Arrow Aviation Solutions
Filed under: Education, Travel , Admission, Air India Express cadet program, Air Travel, Airline Operations, American School of Aviation, ASA, Attorneys, Atwater, Aviation Academy, aviation consultant, Aviation Management Diploma, Aviation School, CFI, Citation CJ2, College, College Admission, Colleges, Commercial Pilot License, Commercial Pilot Training Programme, Course Curricullum, CPL, DGCA, Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, Indian Embassy, Indian students, Indigo, international student, KFA cadet program, King Air B200, Overseas study, PPL, Prince & Reny, Stranded Students, student, Study abroad, Study In US, Study in USA, Study Overseas
SecondCity
I strongly disagree with Capt Kishore’s philosophy of forgive and forget. If every consumer was to follow this approach, CROOKS and SCAMSTERS would continue their act scotfree. I will continue my legal case and strongly recommend others to legally go after Prince and Reny (ASA). Current laws have made it very difficult to receive approval for the Chapter 7 bankruptcy application of this statute and many cases are referred on to the chapter 13 process, where the applicant has to pay the creditors over time. Chapter 7 can also be contested and changed to FRAUD (which is a CRIMINAL OFFENCE in the US punishable by jail) by creditors if proved by bank statements that funds were spend outside of ASA expenses, hence corporate funds misuse and fraud element.
It is just not about the money, I think it is also our moral responsibilty to bring the criminals to justice so that no other CROOK tries to cheat the innocent foreign students ever again.
strongly disagree with Capt Kishore’s philosophy of forgive and forget. If every consumer was to follow this approach, CROOKS and SCAMSTERS would continue their act scotfree. I will continue my legal case and strongly recommend others to legally go after Prince and Reny (ASA). Current laws have made it very difficult to receive approval for the Chapter 7 bankruptcy application of this statute and many cases are referred on to the chapter 13 process, where the applicant has to pay the creditors over time. Chapter 7 can also be contested and changed to FRAUD (which is a CRIMINAL OFFENCE in the US punishable by jail) by creditors if proved by bank statements that funds were spend outside of ASA expenses, hence corporate funds misuse and fraud element.
It is just not about the money, I think it is also our moral responsibilty to bring the criminals to justice so that no other CROOK tries to cheat the innocent foreign students ever again.
Now more views from the sideline:
To the ASA students:
For a bankruptcy case wherein a debtor has a little or no liquid asset left, those numbers 7, 11, 13 (BTW, ASA isn’t eligible for Ch.13 by lack of disposable income) don’t mean anything as far as unsecured creditor is concerned.
Play with the numbers all you like and the end result will be the same on the simple premise that nothing can be collected from nothing. Stop trying to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic. ASA is a fast sinking ship without any salvageable valued assets but tons of problems instead. If by any chance, some recovery will come your way, consider yourself very, very lucky and be grateful.
In as much as everyone wants to see a swift justice be served to those responsible for this unfolding tribulation in Atwater, the DA’s office operates on a different priority particularly for the case involving a small number of local people and the rest of them are all but foreign nationals.
There are literally plethora of similar school failure cases after cases nationwide wherein what clearly appeared to be an outright fraud case never successfully prosecuted let along the criminal charges were even filed in the first place much to everyone’s disappointment and frustration.
For those worrying about the duo may walk away free with impunity, remember the boomerang mentioned in my earlier post? Justice then becomes apparent not as something that will be but something that is.
Let me remind you that you are the only one who can decide to end this delusion of thinking to get refund by filing a law suit and get a justice on your schedule. End it now and focus instead to look for another door that will lead you one step closer to a goal of resuming and completing your training. Further suffering is optional.
All the best and good luck to you all.
Echo Yankee
Echo yankee, why in the hell are you so involved in this discussion as you claim not being an accomplice of Prince and Reny. What is your motive? Why is your agenda geared towards guiding us against making any claims from ASA in court? How do you know that there is nothing? What did you do with all the funds collected from students? And as you say, there is nothing, that means funds were misused, which leads to coporate FRAUD and a CRIMINAL offence leading to prison. We will find out for sure who you are, and will make sure you are in the same cell as your accomplices, and then you can continue pleading your case on this blog in peace.
Some BK (bankruptcy) analysis from the sideline:
The US Bankruptcy petition is generally categorized in two types; Reorganization (Ch.11) and Liquidation (Ch.7).
The purpose of Ch.11 (reorganization) is to allow a company to stay afloat and become profitable by way of implementing a court approved reorganization plan whereas the Ch.7 (Liquidation) is to maximize the value of assets if the business is closed and sold off.
Therefore a bankruptcy filing is meant to serve while a company is still in business and operating and before it’s closure not after.
For all practical purposes, I see no merit and use for filing either petition by ASA at this late in the stage. That’s why no petition has been filed so far at present and it will never be filed in the future.
A bankruptcy petition or not, the recovery of student’s fund would be difficult, IMHO. Then how do we go about it? Read my recent posts “Open letter to SABA President Khurshid Khoja, Esquire” and “ASA Aircraft Movement Update”
Now back to the regular program in progress on the ASA front.
Echo Yankee, over & out!