YES Bank case: ED slaps Rs 5,500-crore kickback charge on Rana Kapoor

Charge sheet filed against YES Bank co-founder

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday submitted its first crucial prosecution complaint, better-known as charge sheet, against YES Bank co-founder Rana Kapoor at the Special Court of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in Mumbai.
 

The charges included kickbacks of more than Rs 5,500 crore, anomalies and discrepancies in distributing bank loans to corporate entities, extended credit facilities by misusing his official position, creating shell companies for laundering money, defaults, and creating tainted assets.
 

Other than Kapoor, the complaint, running into more than 10,000 pages, named his wife, Bindu; three daughters Rakhee, Roshini, and Radha; and three firms, Morgan Credits, RAB Enterprises (India), and Doit Urban Ventures, allegedly controlled by them.
 

“Documents reveal some amounts have been diverted from YES Bank to these firms and used later to create illicit assets,” said a source privy to the charges.

The charge sheet has included the testimonies of at least 50 persons, including former YES Bank managing director Ravneet Gill. 
 

According to it, Gill alleged Kapoor had influenced the credit decisions of Dewan Housing Finance in 2018, when he was head of the credit committee.
 

He said Belief Realtor, an entity controlled by the DHFL promoter, was sanctioned a loan of Rs 750 crore by ignoring the bank’s standard process of valuation.
 

The ED, under the PMLA Act, has to file a prosecution complaint within 90 days of arresting a person to save the attachment/seizure it has done.

“It puts a check on offenders getting the attachment lifted by virtue of the time limit set by law,” said ED counsel, adding that the court was yet to take cognisance of the charge sheet.
 

In the charge sheet, the agency is learnt to have given the details of about 170 bank accounts used to siphon off kickbacks.

Further, it has explained the role of about 112 shell companies in India and abroad, created solely to launder money by the Kapoor family.
 

Giving a detailed analysis of each transaction, it said the accused persons salted away more than Rs 5,500 crore illegally.

The charge sheet also talked of how the family bought properties out of the kickbacks it received from companies whose loans were disbursed by the bank on Kapoor’s instructions.

So far, the agency has identified assets in India and abroad belonging to the Kapoor family. The properties overseas include two luxury hotels — one in New York (worth over $20 million) and one in London (£30 million) — two residential apartments in London, valued at £15 million each, and a yacht in the UK.
 

Kapoor’s six bungalows in Delhi’s upscale localities, including the ones in Jor Bagh, Hauz Khas, and Kautilya Marg, were identified. One of these was bought from fugitive offender Vijay Mallya, said an official in the know. So have six flats and land in Mumbai and suburban areas. The agency will start attaching them after lockdown is over.
 

Meanwhile, investigation in the case of a clutch of borrowers of YES Bank, including Essel Group Chairman Subhash Chandra, Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal, Indiabulls group founder Sameer Gehlaut, Reliance Group chairman Anil Ambani, and Cox & Kings promoter Peter Kerkar are continuing. They will be questioned after lockdown.