Statement on Worldwide Media Holdings’ investment in NewsClick

In a statement, Jason Pfetcher, manager of Worldwide Media Holdings, clarifies on the provenance of the funds that the for-profit investment vehicle based in the U.S. invested in Newsclick

My name is Jason Pfetcher. I am a lawyer based in the United States. I would like to set the record straight regarding Worldwide Media Holdings LLC (“WMH”) and an investment made by WMH to PPK NewsClick Studio Private Limited (“NewsClick”) in India.

I have been an attorney in the United States for over 25 years. For many years, I worked at ThoughtWorks, Inc., an IT consultancy that has a worldwide footprint. I left ThoughtWorks in 2017 when the company was sold to a British private equity fund, Apax Partners (founded in 1969). I joined ThoughtWorks’ founder, Neville Roy Singham (“Roy”), to assist him in his efforts to give away most of the proceeds he received from the sale.

We created a private foundation in the United States called the People’s Support Foundation, Limited (“PSF”), and I have been a board member since its inception. All funds donated to PSF came from the sale of ThoughtWorks. PSF has never received funds from a foreign government.

PSF wholly owns and operates WMH, of which I am the manager. WMH is a for-profit investment vehicle which has made various investments in progressive media projects around the world that provide people-centered news coverage. While these entities are consistent with PSF’s mission, PSF seeks a return on the investments we make in them.

Toward the end of 2017, WMH identified NewsClick as an organization that was consistent with WMH’s purposes and commenced due diligence on a potential investment in NewsClick. As part of this process, I visited Delhi and hired local counsel, met with Newsclick’s editor and other Newsclick staff, toured its facilities, and negotiated with Newsclick’s legal counsel. Following the completion of due diligence, the PSF board determined that it was advisable that WMH invest in Newsclick. That investment was finalized in March 2018. While I have attended various shareholder meetings of Newsclick on behalf of WMH, none of the principals of PSF or WMH, including myself, have ever influenced, guided, or directed the journalistic work of Newsclick.

The NewsClick investment opportunity came to WMH, in part, from our relationship with Prabir Purkayastha. I met Prabir while working at ThoughtWorks; we were fellow employees there for many years. Prabir was, and remains, highly regarded as a journalist, author, technologist, scientist, researcher, and business person.

In 2021, NewsClick’s offices were raided by India’s Enforcement Directorate, which accused the organization of money laundering. The Economic Offences Wing, Delhi Police subsequently initiated its own investigation, as did the Revenue Service of India. Over many months, dozens of NewsClick’s journalists, staff, and other associates, including Prabir and Amit Chakraborty, were interrogated at length, and some of them multiple times.