ED attached record Rs 76,877 Crore worth of assets in 5 years: Data

Hyderabad: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has affected record attachments of Rs 76,877 Crore under its money laundering probe, in a span of 5 years, that is from 2016 to 2021. Pertinent to note India, observed two phases of lockdown during this period.

The directorate is a central agency specialized in financial investigations under the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance. The investigating agency carries out the probe primarily under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and Prevention of Money Laundering Act, (PMLA).

During the last 5 years, the ED has conducted 2044 searches under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and 697 under Foreign Exchange Management Act ( FEMA), data said. Data revealed that between 2015 and 2018, over Rs 33,000 crore worth of assets (immovable properties) were attached.

In 2022 alone, cash and immovable properties worth Rs 426.26 Crore under PMLA and Rs 427.65 Crore under FEMA have been attached by the probing agency, said Pankaj Chaudhary- Minister of State for Finance.

Some of the multi-crore cases from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh under ED's lens include the Rs 5000 crore Heera Group Scam. The multi-crore Chinese Loan App case in which several bank accounts were seized.

C. Partha Sarathy, the chairman and managing director of Karvy Stock Broking Pvt. Ltd has been booked for cheating a consortium of banks. Karvy Stock Broking Pvt. Ltd. had availed credit facilities of Rs. 137 crores by pledging securities and shares without the consent of clients and diverted the money to shell companies. Hyderabad-based Servomax India Private Limited (SIPL), its promoters/directors Venkateswara Rao Avasarala, Poreddy Chandrasekar Reddy, and others were booked for alleged cheating and defrauding Public Sector Banks to the tune of Rs. 402 Crore.

Another high-profile case relates to Rs 90 crore fraud by Hyderabad-based Ghanshyamdas Gems & Jewels and its Managing Partner Sanjay Agarwal. The group availed credit from the bank by submitting fake/forged Bank Guarantees and forged Bank letters for diverting and misappropriating the stock of gold mortgaged.

High profile case of money laundering and property attachment in 2022

In April 2022, the Hyderabad unit of the Enforcement Directorate provisionally attached assets worth Rs. 757.77 crore belonging to Amway India Enterprises Private Limited, a company accused of a multi-level marketing scam. This is the highest attachment so far.

The attached properties include land and factory of Amway at Dindigul district in Tamil Nadu, plant and machinery, vehicles, bank accounts, and fixed deposits. ED had provisionally attached immovable and movable properties worth Rs. 411.83 crore and bank balances of Rs. 345.94 crore from 36 different accounts.

What is the Scam?

A money-laundering investigation by the ED revealed that Amway is running a pyramid scam under the guise of direct selling multi-level marketing network. It was observed that the prices of most of the products offered by the company are highly inflated. People are lured to join as members of the company and purchase products at exorbitant prices. "The new members are not buying the products to use them but to become rich by becoming members as showcased by the upline members. Reality is that the commissions received by the upline members contribute enormously to the hike of prices of the products," the ED said.

India's top financial fugitives booked under PMLA

1 Vijay Mallya

2 Nirav Modi

3 Nitin Sandesara

4 Chetan Sandesara

5 Dipti Sandesara

6 Hitesh Kumar narendrabhai Patel

7 Junaid Iqbal Memon

8 Hajra Memon

9 Asif Iqbal Memon

10 Zakir Naik

11 Sanjay Bhandari

12 Nitish Thakur

13 Mehul Choksi

14 Jatin Mehta