ED attaches 1,280 acres in California

In a first, the Enforcement Directorate(ED) has attached 1,280 acres of land in the US in connection with one of the biggest bank loan frauds in this country and money laundering case.The unprecedented move to attach the land in California worth Rs 1,000 crore was initiated by the ED’s Ahmedabad zonal unit.

“ED Indore attaches under PMlA (Prevention of Money laundering Act) 1,280 acres of land in California, USA, of Zoom Developers Pvt ltd and Vijay Chaudhary in bank fraud cases,” the central agency tweeted on Thursday. The ED officials said that it is for the first time that the agency had taken such an action in the US. Indore falls under the jurisdiction of ED, Ahmedabad.

The ED’s money laundering case was initiated after the CBI registered a case against some of the banks’ officials suspected to be involved in granting loans on the basis of dubious documents and suspect eligibility. Zoom Developers, promoted by Vijay Chaudhary, operates from Indore and Mumbai.

Chaudhary, who is absconding, had taken loans to the tune of Rs2,200 crore from various banks for realty projects in Europe. However, no project was ever undertaken and the money was allegedly siphoned off by Chaudhary.

Zoom Developers is facing the heat after withdrawing a whopping Rs2,650 crore fraudulently from 26 different banks, the sources added.

last month, one of the directors of the company, Sharad Kabra, was arrested by the Indore ED. An arrest warrant has also been issued against Chaudhary. When The Pioneer tried to contact ED Joint Director in Ahmedabad Jitendra Prasad Singh, he was not available to divulge the details. However, a senior ED official said, “The property that was attached has a market value of Rs1,000 crores. 

One of Zoom’s directors Sharad Kabra was arrested last month and is in judicial custody. An arrest warrant against Vijay Chaudhary has been issued.” 

The official said the noose is being tightened to nab Chaudhary. He further said that such a huge bank fraud is not possible without the help of bank officials and the ED is working on the involvement of bank officials also. 

In May last week, the ED had taken Kabra in its custody for 10 days for allegedly taking Rs 10 crore loan from the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraudulently. 

“53-year-old Kabra used forged documents to avail loans for foreign projects worth Rs 410 crores, but the company used the money for other purposes and failed to repay the loan to PNB,” said a source.