The Enforcement Directorate (ED), Goa, on Friday conducted searches under Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) at various locations of Full-Fledged Money Changers (FFMC) in Mumbai and Goa at the office and residential premises of the operators of Sete Mares Global Forex Pvt. Ltd. and Nemichand Khemraj Forex Pvt. Ltd. and their directors for suspected hawala transactions.
“These companies were engaged in the business of foreign currency exchange. These FFMC deposited huge amounts of cash in the bank accounts on a daily basis and remitted it through RTGS/NEFT to other FFMCs and collected foreign currency in cash which aroused suspicion against these companies. It is suspected that these companies may be involved in trade based hawala and the foreign currency collected by these companies were smuggled out of the country to settle transactions abroad,” the ED said in a statement.
The searches resulted in the seizure of Indian currency totalling to `44.37 lakh and assorted foreign currencies amounting to `9.55 lakh found to be in contravention of Foreign Exchange Management Act and Rules and Regulation made thereunder, it said.
Meanwhile, the agency has provisionally attached assets worth `31.83 crore under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in a bank fraud case related to Shubhash Sharma and his Group Companies.
The ED had initiated investigation on the basis of FIRs registered by Chhattisgarh Police against Hotel Sapphire Inn, Goodluck Petroleum Company Pvt. Ltd. and Vidit Trading Pvt. Ltd. for fraudulently obtaining the loan to the extent of `38.50 crore on the basis of forged documents, concealment of facts and criminal conspiracy.
These loans/credit limits were availed by these firms from Axis Bank, Raipur and Punjab National Bank, Raipur. These entities were owned and controlled by Subhash Sharma.