The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday said it has carried out search operations at seven locations in Delhi and Gurugram belonging to real estate majors IREO Group and M3M Group for diverting/siphoning off/ misappropriating funds.

During the search operation, the ED seized 17 high end luxury vehicles Ferrari, Lamborghini, Land Rover, Rolls Royce, Bentley and Mercedes Maybach among others having acquisition value of approximately Rs 60 crore, jewellery/ bullion worth Rs 5.75 crore, cash of Rs 15 lakh and various incriminating documents, digital evidences and  books of accounts.

The searches were conducted on June 1 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The ED has been investigating IREO Group for diverting/siphoning off/ misappropriating funds of investors/customers. The investigations were initiated on the basis of multiple FIRs registered against IREO Group.

“The investigations done by ED showed that huge amounts of money running into hundreds of crores were siphoned off through M3M group also,” the ED said in a statement. The investigations done by ED showed that in one of the transactions, M3M group received about Rs 400 crore from IREO Group through several shell companies in multiple layers, it said. 

“The transactions were shown in books of IREO as payments towards development rights. The land was owned by M3M group and the market value of the land was around Rs 4 crore. M3M Group initially sold the development rights of the said land to five shell companies for a payment of Rs 10 crore. It was claimed that the five companies are unrelated companies. Investigations revealed that the five shell companies were operated by M3M Group,” it said.

The five shell companies thereafter immediately sold the development rights of the same land to IREO Group for about Rs 400 crore. After receiving the amount of Rs 400 crore from IREO Group, the five shell companies transferred the said amounts immediately to M3M Group through multiple shell companies and layers, the agency said.

All the shell companies were owned and operated by M3M Group under the directions of its promoters Basant Bansal and Roop Kumar Bansal and his family members.

In this way, IREO and M3M siphoned off about Rs 400 Crore money belonging to investors/ customers and the proceeds of crime remained with M3M Group which was used by the Group for other investments/ paying off liabilities. On the other hand IREO Group did not make any efforts to develop the land and started to write off the investments every year, it said.                PNS