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You can't make this stuff up, but a scammer did. And City Hall fell for it.
Earlier this year, Mayor Ras Baraka invited what he thought was the Hindu nation of Kailasa to Newark's City Hall for a cultural trade agreement, but it turns out Kailasa is no nation at all; it's a fake.
Though it has a detailed website, "Kailasa" has no real government. It's the brainchild of Swami Nithyananda, a notorious scam artist and fugitive from India who has been on the run from rape charges since 2019.
A Wiki search for Kailaasa redirects to the entry for Nithyananda himself:
To me, terms like "[fill in the blank] nation" are a huge red flag. If Hizzoner or his staff had only bothered to Look. It. Up.
SMH
What started off as a seemingly well-intentioned partnership has turned into a giant embarrassment for the city of Newark.
City of Newark falls for Sister City scam: "Whose job was it to do a simple Google search?"
It was about to become a Sister City with a Hindu nation, but there was one problem -- the nation doesn't exist.www.cbsnews.com
Earlier this year, Mayor Ras Baraka invited what he thought was the Hindu nation of Kailasa to Newark's City Hall for a cultural trade agreement, but it turns out Kailasa is no nation at all; it's a fake.
Though it has a detailed website, "Kailasa" has no real government. It's the brainchild of Swami Nithyananda, a notorious scam artist and fugitive from India who has been on the run from rape charges since 2019.
A Wiki search for Kailaasa redirects to the entry for Nithyananda himself:
while "Kailasa" (as spelled in the article above) is a mountain in Tibet:
Nithyananda - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Mount Kailash - Wikipedia
To me, terms like "[fill in the blank] nation" are a huge red flag. If Hizzoner or his staff had only bothered to Look. It. Up.
SMH
