DeMo probe: ED attaches Rs 58cr assets of Mumbai diamond firm

The Enforcement Directorate said today it has attached assets worth Rs 58 crore of a Mumbai- based diamond firm in connection with a money laundering probe launched after demonetisation of high-value currency in Nov. last year.
The case involves Rs 1,478 crore funds and more than 500 alleged shell company accounts.
The agency said it has issued a provisional order, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), attaching 10 immovable properties, gold jewellery and diamonds worth Rs 58.16 crore in the case against Ms. Rajeshwar Exports.
"These properties belong to Ritesh Jain and Amritlal Jain," an agency statement said.

The case emerged after the ED booked Ritesh Jain, a Mumbai-based diamond trader, for "opening bank accounts in the name of dummy companies for affecting illegal transactions" post demonetisation, and subsequently indulging in alleged illegal import of diamonds using a maze of bank accounts and layering.
These dummy or shell-firm accounts, the agency had said, were used to launder huge amounts of money post demonetisation, which included the involvement of a Hong Kong-based firm.

The agency, in February, had arrested a woman director of this Hong Kong-based firm.
During the course of investigation, the ED had said, it was revealed to them that various accounts were used for effecting illegal transactions of huge amounts of money which were credited from more than 100 accounts of different shell companies, sourced from more than Rs 92 crore in demonetised currency deposited in the account post the notes ban.

"Layering of these funds has been done through more than 500 accounts," it had said.
The agency had also carried out raids in the case last year in December, including at the premises of Ms. Rajeshwar Exports Pvt. Ltd. and had seized diamonds worth over Rs 30 crore.
In a similar instance, the agency in Bengaluru attached assets worth Rs 5.34 crore in the name of K Somasekhar, director of Ms. ILC Industries Ltd. in connection with a money laundering probe in an illegal mining case of Karnataka.