The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested four accused persons for alleged money laundering in a case related to collective investment scheme fraud of over Rs 1100 crore by Chennai-based firms.
The ED had initiated investigation under PMLA against Disc Assets Lead India Limited, Chennai and others based on FIR registered by Economic Offence Wing, Tamil Nadu Police under various Indian Penal Code Sections relating to cheating, criminal conspiracy and criminal breach of trust on the basis of a complaint received from the public.
Disc Assets Lead India Limited, Chennai collected money under various schemes, stating that the customers would pay a fixed amount every month for a fixed period by the end of which they were promised lands. But the Company defaulted and no lands were allotted.
The SEBI had initiated inquiries against the Company, stating that they were doing business of collective investment scheme for which SEBI’s permission was not taken. Then, the Company in order to circumvent these SEBI provisions, started collecting money from the Customers through another Company styled as Dal Marketing Solutions Limited.
The amount declared to be collected by the Company from the customers was Rs 1,137 crores. But lots of inconsistencies were found between the data submitted by the Directors and the data from the banks.
"Investigations under PMLA revealed that, the amounts collected have been diverted in the form of investment in various subsidiaries, royalty, donations, land advance, commission etc. to many entities in which their immediate family members /close relatives / employees of DISC were the key managerial personnel," the agency said in a statement.
Based on the investigations conducted so far, the four key persons were arrested.
The arrested accused are NM Umashankar, CMD of Disc Assets Lead India Limited,N Arunkumar alias N Arun, Director of Disc Assets, V Janarthanan, MD of Disc Assets Lead India and Saravanakumar, Director of Dal Marketing Solutions.
The arrested accused were produced before Sessions Court, Chennai and were remanded to judicial custody for 14 days.