The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday said it has attached a factory in Thailand worth Rs 13.14 crore of a Gitanjali group company, owned by absconding diamond jeweler Mehul Choksi, in connection with the alleged Rs 14,000 crore PNB credit fraud case.
In a separate case, the ED also attached an amount equivalent to Rs 41.87 crore lying in bank accounts in Hong Kong of shell companies in JNPT-OBC bank fraud case.
The agency said it has issued a provisional order for attachment, under the PMLA, of the factory premise owned by Abbeycrest (Thailand) Limited which is a group company of the Gitanjali group of companies.
“Investigations under PMLA revealed that Abbeycrest (Thailand) Limited is the beneficiary of the LoUs (Letters of Undertaking) issued fraudulently and unauthorisedly from the PNB to the tune of Rs 92.3 crore. During probe, this overseas property has been identified and after gathering concrete evidence of ownership it has been attached,” the ED said in a statement.
The ED is probing this case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after taking cognizance of the CBI case.
Officials said ED investigators will soon get issued Letters Rogatories (judicial requests) for legal formalisation of the attachment of the foreign based asset.
Choksi, his nephew and diamond jeweller Nirav Modi, and others are being probed under various criminal laws after the fraud came to light, following a complaint from the Punjab National Bank (PNB) that they allegedly cheated the public sector bank to the tune of over Rs 13,000 crore in alleged connivance with its employees.
“With this attachment, the value of attachment/seizure in the PNB scam is to the tune of of Rs 4,765 crore (approx). Further investigation is in process,” the ED said.
In the JNPT-OBC bank fraud case, the accused Rajesh Bangawala allegedly conspired with bank officials, and fraudulently transferred Fixed Deposit worth Rs 180 crore deposited by Jawahar Lal Nehru Port Trust to a private entity on the basis of forged documents, the ED said.
The amount was further transferred to various accounts and part of which was siphoned off to Hong Kong in the accounts of shell companies controlled by the accused. An amount of Rs 109 crore has been recovered till and returned to JNPT
“Investigation in India and overseas revealed that an amount of $5.29 million and HKD 4.76 million (Rs 41.87 crore) is lying in the accounts of shell companies controlled by accused and accordingly the same is provisionally attached under PMLA,” the agency said in a statement.