Madhubani, India – In the scorching heat of a July afternoon in eastern India’s Bihar state, a man in his mid-thirties nervously stands in the corner of a field. Wearing a pink shirt and black trousers, he waits in anticipation. It is a big day for him.

Nirbhay Chandra Jha, 35, has travelled more than 100km (62 miles), all the way from Begusarai to Madhubani district in the hope of finding a suitable bride for himself in Saurath, a village famous for its “sabha” or annual “groom market”.

Any moment now, Jha expects a girl’s family to come to him and start negotiations for a dowry. The aspiring groom stands there on public display, with a modest dowry tag of 50,000 rupees ($630).

“Had I been younger, I could have easily asked for 2-3 lakh rupees [$2,500-3,700],” he told Al Jazeera.

Nirbhay is a Maithil Brahmin, a subgroup within Hindu Brahmins living in the Mithilanchal region of Bihar. The Brahmin community is the dominant social group in the complex Hindu caste hierarchy and has enjoyed historical privileges.

Hindu endogamy norms generally restrict marriages within the same clan but encourage alliances within the same caste group, the reason why such bonds are mostly “arranged” by the families.

Nirbhay works as a manager at a factory, with a stable income, which he believes makes him a good choice for a husband.

Nirbhay Chandra Jha has come to the event looking for a bride [Ismat Ara/Al Jazeera]

Dowry, though illegal in India, is prevalent and has a high social acceptance, especially in Bihar and the adjoining northern state of Uttar Pradesh. Experts estimate the total value of dowry payments in a year in India is $5bn – equal to India’s annual spending on public health.

Nearby, about 20 men sit under the trees, calmly discussing the turnout of grooms in this season of “Saurath Sabha”, which they say is one of the world’s oldest matrimonial sites.

Though such traditions have largely disappeared in India, the one in Madhubani – part of Bihar’s Mithilanchal region – seems to have survived modernity.

‘Groom market’

In this unique 700-year-old tradition, the aspiring husbands stand in public display, and the male guardians of girls, usually the father or brother, select the groom. Generally, the bride has no say in the process.

“It is as if the bride’s family can just shop for a groom they like if they can pay the required dowry. It is like a groom market,” a man who lived in an adjoining village told Al Jazeera.

For Maithil Brahmins, the event is sacred.

Locals say the prospective brides’ families visit the village without declaring their intent and observe the men secretly from afar. Once they have made their choices, they put a Mithila gamchha, a red shawl, over the selected groom to make a public statement about his selection.

“It is akin to keeping a handkerchief on a bus seat,” says Madhubani resident Jyoti Raman Jha, referring to a first-come-first-serve system on public transports.

A ‘panjikar’ or traditional record-keeper, reads family records maintained over centuries [Ismat Ara/Al Jazeera]

The thin attendance at the event speaks of the waning influence of the tradition. However, the meeting place for one of the highest castes among Hindus still draws people struggling to find matches from a tiny pool of prospects.

Some say there used to be open bidding for grooms in the olden days – with varying dowry tags. The more prestigious the profession of the groom, the higher the demand for dowry. Engineers, doctors and government workers were most sought after.

By their looks, the men now mainly seem to be from villages who have taken an extraordinary interest in keeping the tradition alive. But it has not been easy.

Economic progress and migration to cities have uprooted many Indians from familial land. Parents also now have lesser control over their children’s matrimonial choices. With cheap internet access, arranged matchmaking has increasingly shifted online. India has some of the biggest matrimonial websites in the world.

The Saurath gathering, however, is a remnant of an arranged marriage system that remains unpolluted by technological advancement.

The event is held beside a pond in the village, lined with dozens of peepal, banyan and mango trees. A huge but unused well, freshly painted with an Indian flag, stands as a reminder of the olden days. An ancient Hindu temple stands next to the pond.

A bright yellow banner, with “Saurath Sabha” written in Hindi in bold red, welcomes the attendees as they trickle in. The legend goes that when 100,000 Brahmins would reach the site, the age-old peepal tree would shed all its leaves.

“In the earlier days, buses would run across the state to bring people to the sabha,” Swaraj Chaudhary, 50, told Al Jazeera. “Now, hardly a few hundred grooms gather during the event.”

The dowry menace

Villager Shekhar Chandra Mishra, one of the organisers of the sabha, blames the media and politicians for its decline.

“The media painted our sabha as a market where men were sold like cattle and had open dowry tags. Terms like Brahmin ‘dulha bazaar’ [groom market] became common,” he told Al Jazeera.

A book of family records maintained by the panjikars [Ismat Ara/Al Jazeera]

Mishra, however, does not shy away from acknowledging that the event has been propagating an open dowry culture for centuries.

“Nowadays, dowry is not looked at kindly but still happens under the table,” he says. “If parents have invested money in making their son an engineer or a doctor, they would want a return on the investment, and dowry is seen as one of the ways to do it.”

Dowry is a huge menace in Bihar and dowry deaths and killings are common despite various governments launching anti-dowry campaigns. According to the National Crime Records Bureau data from 2020, Bihar recorded more than 1,000 dowry deaths, the second highest in the country.

A recent campaign by the Bihar government urged people to make an anti-dowry declaration on their wedding cards. It is not uncommon to see walls of homes, businesses and government offices painted with graffiti asking people to shun dowry.

The menace even gave birth to a curious trend in the region, called “pakadwa vivah” or captive marriage, which saw men being kidnapped by a bride’s family to be married at gunpoint to avoid dowry. Such kidnappings are still being reported.

People at the event recall the days when thousands of grooms would come wearing red clothes, ready to be married off after a dowry negotiation was reached. “Without dowry, grooms would not agree to get married,” says a man.

Another man intervenes. “One shouldn’t be shocked to hear about the prevalence of dowry in the sabha. Dowry is normal in India and the sabha is just reflective of that,” he says.

A banner welcoming the visitors to the ‘groom market’ [Ismat Ara/Al Jazeera]

One of the reasons, locals say, for the dwindling attendance at the sabha is growing intercaste marriages by the Brahmins, locally called “urhar shadi”, or love marriage.

Manish Jha, 31, from Darbhanga in Bihar, is among those who married outside his caste. His marriage to a Rajput woman faced much opposition from his family and the community.

“I was even put at gunpoint once. But I loved her so much,” he told Al Jazeera, adding that he married his wife amid death threats. They now have a son together.

“The new generation of the community doesn’t want to restrict itself. They want to marry the person they love, no matter what their caste,” he says.

Waning tradition

Despite that, Manish believes the Saurath Sabha should be preserved as an important cultural entity of Mithilanchal.

“It also helps the poor in generating revenue. During the sabha, many people earn enough for the next few months,” he says.

Ghanshyam, a carpenter and therefore belonging to a lower Hindu caste, sells tea near the site of the sabha. He says during the olden days, shopkeepers would rejoice at this time of the year with their sales rocketing.

“But now the number of people who attend are fewer. Earlier, my father tells me, the sabha would be enough to generate revenue for six months,” he says.

Sonu, another shopkeeper, says while sales would go up by a notch during the event, it did not account for much these days.

Some attending the gathering say the ease of internet matchmaking does not appeal to them.

Muktinath Pathak, father of an aspiring groom, believes getting married at the Saurath Sabha will be safer for his son Amarjeet than a matrimonial website.

“When the marriage is done online, there is a risk of divorce and separation, but not when traditions are followed,” he says as he disappears into the crowd.

Mehek Pandey, right, sits with her brother and mother at the event [Ismat Ara/Al Jazeera]

The organisers claim the method of the Saurath Sabha is way ahead of science as the standing rule here is to avoid marrying within the same clan. Derived from the ancient Hindu text of Manusmriti, locals believe marriage within the same clan leads to “impure” children.

Madhubani resident Jyoti explains that in order to find a match at the event, one has to first approach a panjikar, a traditional record-keeper or registrar, who maintains records of Maithil Brahmin families for centuries in order to ensure there is no blood relationship between prospective couples.

The panjikar system strictly dictates that the bride and groom must not be related by blood for seven generations on their father’s side and five generations from the mother’s.

Once the registrar approves a match for a generous fee, the parents go ahead with marriage preparations.

Pramod Kumar Mishra, a panjikar who has pitched a tent at the sabha, says he himself was married there in 2003. “I was chosen by my wife’s family. We are living happily now,” he says.

The panjikars still maintain a thick book of records and visit homes to note down births and deaths in Brahmin families. With their traditional work not so much in demand, they are looking for alternate ways of income while their children move out of the state in search of other work.

“We are probably the last generation of panjikars,” Kanhaiya Kumar Mishra told Al Jazeera.

It is almost evening now. A woman enters the sabha and loudly declares: “My brother needs to find a bride.”

Mehek Pandey has come from Uttar Pradesh with her husband and mother to find a bride for her 33-year-old brother, Sumit Mohan Mishra. He was set to be married in June but the bride’s family backed out, leaving the family high and dry.

After the family’s attempts to find him a suitable bride failed in their town, they travelled to Madhubani on buses and trains for over 24 hours to join the sabha.

“These days, you cannot rely on online matrimonial apps for weddings, it is just not authentic,” Mehek said.

The FBI tested the NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware for potential use in criminal investigations. 

At the same time, lawyers from the Justice Department have questioned the potential for complicating prosecution efforts that could follow the FBI’s use of the spyware, people familiar with the matter told The Washington Post. 

The FBI confirmed to The Post that it had tested the technology developed by the Israeli company but said it had not been used “in support of any investigation.”

“The FBI works diligently to stay abreast of emerging technologies and tradecraft — not just to explore a potential legal use but also to combat crime and to protect both the American people and our civil liberties,” the FBI’s statement said.

“That means we routinely identify, evaluate, and test technical solutions and problems for a variety of reasons, including possible operational and security concerns they might pose in the wrong hands,” it added. “There was no operational use in support of any investigation, the FBI procured a limited license for product testing and evaluation only.”

The Hill has reached out to the FBI for comment.

The statement comes after an announcement on Tuesday that new evidence showed that investigators with the Israeli police improperly used spyware to scrutinize citizens’ phones.

That announcement followed an Israeli newspaper’s report that police used the NSO Group’s Pegasus software, without authorization, to spy on people, including protesters and politicians. 

In the United States, NSO technology is blacklisted, and it has been the subject of international controversy as it has been used to snoop on journalists, human rights activists and others. 

Israel used the NSO Group’s software as a tool of diplomacy. The F.B.I. wanted it for domestic surveillance. Then everything soured. Here are highlights of a New York Times Magazine investigation.

The Israeli cyber company NSO Group at one of its branches in the Arava Desert in Sapir, Israel. Credit…Amir Levy/Getty Images

El gobernador Pedro Pierluisi reaccionó esta mañana al arresto de la exmandataria Wanda Vázquez Garced por parte de las autoridades federales por corrupción pública.

“Hoy vemos una vez más que nadie está por encima de la ley en Puerto Rico”, dijo Pierluisi en declaraciones escritas.

Mientras, expresó que “ante esta noticia que ciertamente afecta y lacera la confianza de nuestro pueblo, reitero que en mi administración seguiremos teniendo un frente común con las autoridades federales contra todo el que cometa un acto indebido, venga de donde venga e implique a quien sea, así como promoviendo iniciativas y dando seguimiento a los proyectos de ley que he presentado para combatir la corrupción”.

“Todos tenemos que estar unidos en contra de este mal social y bajo mi administración hay cero tolerancia contra la corrupción”, insistió.

Vázquez Garced fue arrestada esta madrugada por agentes del Negociado Federal de Investigaciones (FBI) en el marco de una investigación en su contra por supuestas infracciones a las leyes electorales de Estados Unidos, confirmaron fuentes de EL VOCERO.

Tal como había anticipado EL VOCERO, su arresto era inminente. 

La portavoz de prensa del Negociado Federal de Investigaciones (FBI), Limary Cruz, confirmó a este medio que hoy se ejecutaban tres arrestos por corrupción, aunque no brindó los nombres de las personas implicadas.

Cruz indicó que a las 11:00 a.m. Fiscalía federal realizará una conferencia de prensa para ofrecer mayores detalles.

CARACAS (Reuters) – U.S. sanctions on Venezuela have led the New York Federal Reserve to crack down on Puerto Rico’s $50 billion offshore banking industry, according to four sources and a document seen by Reuters.

The development will prevent the island’s offshore banks, several of which are owned by citizens of crisis-stricken Venezuela, from opening accounts with the Fed that give them direct access to the U.S. financial system.

Offshore banks in Puerto Rico are able to open accounts with the Fed since the island is a U.S. territory. That gives them a competitive advantage over other offshore banking jurisdictions like the British Virgin Islands, which have to access the U.S. financial system through expensive third-party correspondent banks.

But in a previously unreported Feb. 27 letter, the New York Fed said it had halted approval of new accounts for Puerto Rican offshore banks and other financial institutions “in light of recent events, including the expansion of U.S. economic sanctions relating to Venezuela.”

It plans stricter requirements for the opening of such accounts in the future, it said.

It did not give further details on why it was taking that step. But the move follows two Puerto Rican offshore banks that have accounts open with the New York Fed being mentioned in federal investigations into money laundering and sanctions evasion related to Venezuela.

“The Fed worries about its reputational exposure, just like anybody else does,” said David Murray, a vice president at the Washington-based Financial Integrity Network and a former Treasury Department official.

A spokeswoman for the New York Fed did not respond to requests for comment.

The decision will only affect Puerto Rican banks that had pending applications with the Fed and will not affect the 17 of Puerto Rico’s 80 offshore banks that the Fed’s website shows already have Fedwire accounts. Reuters was unable to determine how many banks were awaiting responses on their applications to open accounts.

The move to suspend account approvals shows how U.S. sanctions on Venezuela, which are meant to force socialist President Nicolas Maduro from office amid a political crisis and an economic meltdown, are having a ripple effect in other parts of the global financial system.

It could deal a blow to Puerto Rico, which has been using the offshore sector as an economic development strategy as it struggles with a crushing debt load and the impact of natural disasters such as 2017’s Hurricane Maria.

The island has for years nurtured its offshore banking sector by offering tax incentives to bank owners and promoting direct access to the U.S. financial system through the Fed rather than correspondent banks, which charge for their services and can end the relationship at a moment’s notice.

Offshore banking lets individuals and companies deposit money outside their countries of residence in order to legally lower tax bills, but criminal investigations and multilateral organizations have alleged it is also used for tax evasion and money laundering.

The notice also applies to U.S. Virgin Islands offshore banks. Both territories fall under the jurisdiction of the Fed’s New York branch.

‘WE SHARE IT ALL’

George Joyner, the commissioner of Puerto Rico’s banking regulator, declined to say how many of the territory’s offshore banks had applications pending with the Fed. He said the island regulator used the same standards as federal authorities including the Fed to supervise financial institutions, and that anti-money laundering was a “high focus.”

“Our office fully shares everything that we find in our examinations, and we share it with all the federal agencies,” Joyner said in a telephone interview.

He said “a number” of Puerto Rican offshore banks had been created with Venezuelan capital, without elaborating.

The Virgin Islands’ director of banking and insurance did not respond to requests for comment.

Sixteen of Puerto Rico’s 80 offshore banking and financial services firms are owned by Venezuelan individuals or companies, according to a Reuters review of their websites, corporate registry records, and directors’ LinkedIn pages and personal websites.

Several marketed directly to Venezuelan clients, or had past deals with the Venezuelan government, while twelve of the sixteen had Fedwire accounts, according to the Federal Reserve’s website.

Fedwire, a funds transfer system controlled by the Fed, allows banks, businesses and government agencies to send and receive payments in real time.

VENEZUELA CONNECTIONS

In recent years, U.S. prosecutors have examined the role Puerto Rico’s offshore banks have played in efforts to launder Venezuelan funds through the United States. It was not clear if the two cases in question contributed to the New York Fed’s decision to halt the opening of new accounts, but one source at a Puerto Rican bank and industry consultant David Nissman said they were likely an important factor. Joyner said they “certainly didn’t help.”

Federal prosecutors in a sprawling corruption probe unsealed in July of 2018 charged Uruguayan national Marcelo Gutierrez with allegedly conspiring to launder funds embezzled from Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA through a “bank in Puerto Rico” that he owned, according to criminal investigation filings in Florida federal court.

The prosecutors’ complaint does not identify the bank and says the transaction never took place.

Gutierrez’s LinkedIn profile lists him as a director at Vestin Bank International, which Puerto Rico banking regulator records show received a license to operate as an offshore operation on the island in 2015.

Vestin has since been acquired by Asia-focused Standard International Bank and Gutierrez has not been a shareholder since August of 2018, Standard said in a statement, adding that it had no links to Vestin’s prior business, no ties to Venezuela and no plans to enter the Venezuelan market.

Bruce Udolf, a Florida-based defense attorney for Gutierrez, said, “We expect to respond with a vigorous defense to those charges. We are hopeful that he will be vindicated at trial.”

In February, the FBI raided Puerto Rican offshore bank Banco San Juan International (BSJI) as part of a probe of money laundering and evasion of Venezuela-related sanctions, special agent Douglas Leff told reporters at the time. A spokesman for the FBI San Juan field office declined to provide further details.

In 2016, BSJI reached a $300 million credit agreement with PDVSA, according to PDVSA’s financial statements from that year.

BSJI also has an account with the Fed, according to Fed records.

In a statement, BSJI said it had complied with all U.S. sanctions and was cooperating with the FBI investigation.

The source at the bank in Puerto Rico, along with Joyner and Nissman, said most of the island’s offshore banks applied strict scrutiny on customers, and that the decision would punish an entire sector for the actions of a few bad actors.

“It just shuts your businesses down, and what did they do?” said Nissman, a former U.S. attorney for the U.S. Virgin Islands who drafted the territory’s offshore banking law, and now a Puerto Rico-based consultant. He said the Fed should evaluate applications on a “case-by-case basis.”

La exgobernadora Wanda Vázquez Garced fue arrestada esta madrugada por las autoridades federales en el marco de una investigación en su contra por supuestas infracciones a las leyes electorales de Estados Unidos, confirmaron fuentes de EL VOCERO.

Tal como había anticipado EL VOCERO, su arresto era inminente. 

La portavoz de prensa del Negociado Federal de Investigaciones (FBI), Limary Cruz, confirmó a este medio que hoy se realizaron tres arrestos por corrupción, aunque no brindó los nombres de las personas detenidas.

Cruz indicó que a las 11:00 a.m. Fiscalía federal realizará una conferencia de prensa para ofrecer mayores detalles.

Luis A. Plaza Mariota, el abogado de la exmandataria, había anticipado la detención de Vázquez Garced.

La investigación del caso se centra en la fallida campaña de las elecciones primarias del Partido Nuevo Progresista (PNP) que la entonces gobernadora pretendía ganar para mantenerse como inquilina de La Fortaleza. 

Plaza Mariota, experimentado abogado que como fiscal federal auxiliar en el Distrito de Puerto Rico tuvo a cargo decenas de casos por delitos de cuello blanco, fue contratado por Vázquez Garced hace meses, junto al abogado Peter John Porrata, para defenderla en este caso en el que se la acusaría de participar de un esquema de financiamiento ilegal de su campaña electoral.

A pesar de que esperaban el arresto, Plaza Mariota había dicho que estaba confiado en que las acusaciones contra la exgobernadora no procederían por tratarse de un caso técnico. 

En declaraciones ofrecidas hoy a EL VOCERO, el abogado Osvaldo Carlo, exfiscal federal, afirmó que la acusación podría estar relacionada con asuntos ya revelados por la representación legal de Vázquez Garced. “Como todavía la acusación no se ha hecho pública, asumo que la acusación es sobre el asunto que los abogados hicieron público, que es el tema de la encuesta (política) y del banco venezolano. Entendemos que por ahí va la cosa”, dijo.   

De otro lado, Carlo negó que fuera a representar legalmente o que esté asesorando a Vázquez Garced. “Hasta este momento, no”, respondió Carlo. 

EL VOCERO reseñó que un grupo de fiscales de la División de Integridad Pública del Departamento de Justicia federal, con sede en Washington, había concluido la investigación contra Vázquez Garced. Se informó que dos de sus colaboradoras en la campaña y en La Fortaleza—Lillian Sánchez y Marisol Blasco— declararon ante el gran jurado que investiga supuestas irregularidades relacionadas con los donativos electorales durante el proceso de las primarias de 2020.

La historia se remonta a una invitación que recibió Vázquez Garced a una reunión con banqueros y que al menos uno de ellos habría realizado donaciones a su campaña a cambio de que se detuviera una investigación en contra de su banco que opera en Puerto Rico desde 2009. 

Según diversas fuentes, el banquero habría intentado paralizar una auditoría rutinaria de la Oficina del Comisionado de Instituciones Financieras (OCIF). 

Alegadamente, la entidad involucrada en el caso se llama Bancrédito y presuntamente el banquero es Julio Herrera Velutini, quien se habría reunido con el grupo de campaña de Vázquez Garced mientras enfrentaba al candidato Pedro Pierluisi.

Lo que ha trascendido es que Herrera Velutini habría gestionado que se destituyera al entonces comisionado de OCIF, George Joyner, por supuestamente insistir en la auditoría a Báncrédito, un proceso ordinario de la agencia y colocar en su puesto a Víctor Rodríguez Bonilla, quien había realizado trabajos el banquero en el pasado. 

La investigación federal procura establecer si Vázquez Garced accedió a la petición del banquero. 

El 3 de junio de 2020, Vázquez Garced informó en un comunicado de prensa que George Joyner había renunciado a su puesto en la OCIF.

En las únicas declaraciones entonces de Joyner -hechas en exclusiva a EL VOCERO– dijo: “No me siento en libertad de discutir el asunto. Se trata de un puesto de confianza, a la libre disposición del Ejecutivo. Como es así, si hay un retiro de confianza, el funcionario está en la obligación de dimitir”.

Pero lo cierto es que el funcionario fue despedido. “El hecho de que botaran al que era jefe de Instituciones Financieras (por la OCIF) tiene una larga explicación, gestión que fue consultada con la Fiscalía federal, al alegarse que la persona que ocupaba esta plaza estaba ayudando a Burdiel cuando ya estaba referido al PFEI (Panel sobre el Fiscal Especial Independiente)”, sostuvo el abogado de Vazquez Garced. 

Burdiel es Luis Burdiel Agudo, el expresidente del Banco de Desarrollo Económico (BDE), quien en agosto de 2021 fue sentenciado a tres años en probatoria por violaciones al Código Penal y la Ley de Ética Gubernamental. Según sostuvo el abogado de la exmandataria, la salida de George Joyner está vinculada a esa colaboración con el condenado y no con el pedido del banquero. 

Otra de las irregularidades están vinculadas a la nacionalidad del banquero. Las leyes en Estados Unidos prohíben que un ciudadano extranjero haga aportes a las campañas electorales para evitar la injerencia de otros países en los comicios. Herrera Velutini es venezolano. 

Vázquez Garced desarrolló su carrera como servidora pública, mayormente en el Departamento de Justicia. Fue fiscal auxiliar, fiscal de distrito, salió de la agencia para ocupar el cargo de procuradora de las Mujeres y regresó como secretaria de Justicia, bajo el gobierno de Ricardo Rosselló.

En el verano de 2019, con la renuncia de Rosselló a la gobernación, correspondió a Vázquez Garced sucederlo en el cargo por disposición constitucional. Estando en La Fortaleza perdió ante Pedro Pierluisi en las primarias.

“Le puedo decir al pueblo de Puerto Rico que yo no he cometido ningún delito, que yo no he incurrido en ninguna conducta ilegal, incorrecta”, dijo Vázquez Garced hace unos meses.

Nota de archivo: este contenido fue publicado hace más de 30 días.

La exgobernadora Wanda Vázquez es investigada por donativos ilegales que presuntamente le hizo un banquero venezolano. (David Villafañe Ramos)