The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday attached shares worth Rs 452 crore of ILFS Tamil Nadu Power Company Limited (ITPCL) held by a Singapore-based shell company.
“The ED has provisionally attached assets totaling to Rs 452 crores belonging to AS Coal Pte Singapore, a Singapore-based shell company owned by a British National Jaimin Vyas under Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) in a case relating to fraud,” the agency said in a statement.
The attached assets are in the form of 8.86 per cent shares of ITPCL presently worth around Rs 452 crore, it said.
The ED had initiated investigation under PMLA on the basis of FIR registered by EOW, Delhi against IRL, ITNL (Group companies of IL&FS), its officials and others.
Investigation was also conducted by the Serious Fraud Investigation office (SFIO) and criminal complaint has been filed by SFIO against IL&FS Financial Services (IFIN) and its officials invoking sections of Companies Act, 2013.
“Investigation under PMLA revealed that there was a well planned conspiracy to defraud IL&FS and Indian Banks by Jaimin Vyas in connivance with officials of IL&FS and one Chinese EPC Contractor namely SEPCO III. The company’s right to select the EPC contractor was illegally delegated to Jaimin Vyas, violating the terms and conditions of Share Purchase Agreement,” it said.
Jaimin Vyas thereafter nominated SEPCO as EPC contractor and got kick back in guise of fees for consultancy services. The same money was routed as equity investment in ITPCL. Subsequently, ITPCL paid SEPCO III the amount (paid earlier by SEPCO to Jaimin Vyas) by inflating the value of the contract and payments were also made in the guise of early completion of the project, the agency said.
Further, investigations also revealed that Jaimin Vyas received illegal gratification from Noble Coal in lieu of awarding a coal supply contract (to ITPCL) at an inflated rate, it said.
Earlier, ED had attached movable and immovable properties of committee of directors of IFIN worth Rs 126 crore, and movable and immovable properties of two defaulter loanees of IFIN namely SIVA Group and ABG Group worth Rs 1,400 crores. Arun Kumar Saha, one of the former members of committee of directors of IFIN and Karunakaran Ramchand, former MD of ITNL were arrested and prosecution complaint has been filed under PMLA against the duo, it said.