ED to probe funding of lawyers by Rose Valley

The Enforcement Directorate, probing the Rose Valley ponzi scam, will probe the funding route of lawyers who were appearing on behalf of the company in the courts.
"We are going to start probing how the lawyers appearing on behalf of Rose Valley Group are being paid since most of the accounts have been sealed," a source in the directorate told PTI.
He said that the directorate would probe whether the lawyers were being paid through the "normal methods or through clandestine channels because the money is collected from crime proceeds which the department is tracking".
Alleging that the Rose Valley Group was resorting to "court shopping" to delay the investigations, he said that they

were moving courts after losing cases endlessly.
"Once they lose in one court, they will move to some other court just to hamper the investigations. Even they are moving lower and higher courts in places where the probe is not covered under its jurisdiction," he said.

"Even if they get a month's time during the interim period, it is a high possibility that money is being siphoned off by the group", he alleged.
Money collected by Rose Valley was five times bigger than that of Saradha, ED had said earlier.
The source said, "In spite of the ongoing probe, the group was active and collecting money for which the official name Rose Valley has been changed to Chocolate Group and Sun City Group. Although they are retaining the Rose Valley brand name".

To unearth the name change, ED had deployed a decoy for hotel booking at one of the properties.
"So far, ED has attached Rs 300 crore in cash of the Rose Valley Group. We are not worried about immovable properties, but about movable ones like cash," he said.
Regarding Saradha scam which the agency was also probing, the source said that once the CBI filed chargesheets against the main conspirators, it would follow suit.