Mike Vaswani with Las Vegas Community Leadership Award
AN FBI INITIATIVE

Our Sindhi brother MIKE VASWANI was recently honored by FBI with its DIRECTOR’S COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP AWARD, making him the first Las Vegas resident to be so honored. He is a low key man, very humble and loved by all.

Mike Vaswani is the president of Asian American Group {AAG}, an organization composed of 30 diverse Asian organizations. “UNITY IS OUR PRIORITY AND STRENGTH” is his battle cry as reflected on his calling card. To prove his point, during the Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas addressing minority issues, when the Asian community was overlooked in a 2008, he complained to the Democrat hierarchy. They quickly corrected their faux pas. The AAG now includes Koreans, Filipinos, Indians, Sri Lankans, Chinese, Malaysians, Thai, Laotians, Vietnamese, Japanese, Indonesians, Singaporeans and Middle Easterners

Vaswani’s political priority is to see more Asian-Americans appointed to boards and commissions by governors, county commissioners and city council members. He estimates there are more than 150,000 Asians in Las Vegas and they are not well-represented through appointments.

It is interesting to note that in the United States, 60 to 70 percent of motels are owned by Indians, 40 percent of the top hotels are owned by Indians, 90 percent of smoke shops are owned by Indians, 70 percent of 7-Eleven's are owned by Indians, 40 percent of gas stations are owned by Indians. There are 42,000 Indian doctors in the U.S.

He is a conduit linking the Asian American and law enforcement communities, but humbly says he does not deserve this award. Holly James, the FBI's community coordinator, disagreed. "Mike's been very helpful to the FBI. He's letting his community know not to be afraid of law enforcement," she said.

He is 66 years old, had left  India for Africa when he was 17 and lived all over the world before immigrating to the United States in 1970. He moved to Las Vegas in 1995, joining his wife, Rita.

In 2002 he became the President of AAG, which was organized in 1993 by Dr. Peter Lok, Vaswani's mentor. He also heads the Asian American Coalition of Las Vegas, which raises money to support charitable efforts. Vaswani owns three small group homes for Alzheimer's patients called Happy Adult Care and works as a zoning consultant.

CONGRATULATIONS AND LAKH LAKH WADIYUN. JHULE LAL