The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has slapped a Rs425 crore show cause notice against BCCI, IPl, their officials and private multimedia firms for alleged contravention of foreign exchange laws for awarding a cricketing media rights contract in 2009.
The notices were issued to close to ten individuals and entities which include former Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) boss N Srinivasan, the then IPl Chairman lalit Modi, Chief Operating Officer (COO) Sunder Raman, and the officials of World Sports Group (WSG) and Multi Screen Media (MSM) for allegedly “manipulating” the contract and making illegal payments through fraudulent means.
The agency has issued the final notices after which all the notices are allowed to appeal against the order within a period of 45 days or else pay the charged amount mentioned in the notice. The development comes at a time when the latest edition of Indian Premier league (IPl) players’ auction is underway in Bangalore on Monday.
The controversial deal dates back to 2008 when the BCCI awarded the 10-year media rights to WSG on payment of $918 million. In the same year, WSG also entered into a deal with Multi Screen Media to make Sony the official broadcaster. The contract was replaced a year later with a nine-year deal where Multi Screen paid $1.63 billion.
The ED stepped in this case in 2009 and began a probe under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) to investigate allegations that payment of Rs425 crore facilitation fee by MSM Singapore to WSG Mauritius was made in an alleged unauthorised manner.
During the probe, the agency detected that the deal payments were made to “unauthorised beneficiaries” and not the cricketing regulating bodies as per the terms and rules enshrined in the contract.