Thread by @DisinfoEU

In addition to #BadSources, @Knack & @lesoir published stories on a Brussels-based think tank, following up on our previous work and leads. They confirm that the South Asia Democratic Forum received substantial funding from offshore & opaque organisations.
knack.be/nieuws/storyki…

ICYMI, the SADF is one of the Brussels stakeholders depicted in our EP Today and Indian Chronicles reports. We showed that its creation was directly tied to the Srivastava Group's efforts to influence policymakers in Brussels.
@lesoir sums it up here: lesoir.be/496897/article…

So, who are the SADF funders? Based on information collected by @Knack, the SADF had received funding from the 'European Foundation for International Development', 'Transworld Partners Ltd' and 'Euro Corporation Ltd', amongst others.

When asked who was behind these obscure funding sources, Paulo Casaca, the SADF Director and a former MEP, was unable to answer. Therefore, EU DisinfoLab investigated further.

Let's start with the 'European Foundation for International Development' (EFID) in Luxemburg. We identified Gopal M., born in August 1970, living in New Delhi, India, as the EFID's co-founder. We couldn't find traces of any website or visible activities. gd.lu/rcsl/2vk1Cz

Regarding 'Euro Corporation Ltd', we found a UK-based company chaired by an Indian individual named Gopal Gopal, also born in August 1970.

…te.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/073252…

And when we looked into 'Transworld Partners Ltd', guess who we found? Our dear friend Gopal, still registered at the same address in Delhi.

So, if you want to win "Who wants to be a millionaire", you better know the answer to this question:

Jokes aside, facts are facts, and they are what they are: the SADF has been extensively funded by Indian stakeholders based in Delhi, via organisations based in the UK, Hong Kong and Luxemburg.

After #Qatargate, Roberta Metsola promised that "there will be no sweeping under the carpet". We would like to remind her and the EU institutions that we had exposed and warned about the SADF in 2019 and 2020, and that nothing was done.

Meanwhile, the SADF continued its operations including hosting events with EU institutions' staff – as if it was all fine.
The cost of inaction is higher than we often think it is, as it legitimises such abnormal behaviours and feeds the growing discredit of good-faith NGOs.

We hope that, this time, the facts we are presenting will eventually lead to some concrete action.
Up to you @Europarl_EN @EU_EEAS @EU_Commission @EP_Democracy

Find out more about our #BadSources investigation ⬇️

https://twitter.com/DisinfoEU/status/1628663986655748096