Odisha ponzi case: ED attaches Rs 158 crore of assets of

Enforcement Directorate (ED) today attached assets, including 200kgs of silver coins, worth Rs 158 crore in connection with its money laundering probe against Odisha-based Seashore group of companies in an alleged multi-crore chitfund scam case.
ED's zonal office here issued the orders under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as it attached about 13 plush flats in various parts of the state, vast tracts of land in Angul, Bhadrak, Mayurbhanj and other places, a corporate office valued at Rs 30 crore in Bhubaneswar, two factories in Mayurbhanj, 200kgs of silver coins, 1.4kgs of gold coins and other immovable assets in the state.

The properties attached by ED today were already attached by the Economic Offence Wing of Crime Branch of Odisha Police in 2013. EOW had moved the designated court under Odisha Protection of Interests of Depositors (in Financial Establishment) Act, 2011 for confisication of the properties of the Seashore Group.
The properties attached by ED included a wheat flour mill at Barunei in Khurda district, one oil mill at Betanati in Mayurbhanj district and above 90 acres of land.
ED also attached two quintals of silver and more than one kg of gold owned by ponzi company CMD Prashant Dash already in posession of the EOWs.

Dash was already been in jail after being arrested by the Crime Branch of Odisha Police last year. He was also taken on remand both by ED and CBI last month on the charge of his alleged involvement in the chitfund scam in the state.

Established in 2005-06, the Seashore conglomerate forayed into a host of fields including money circulation, real estate, media and gold trading.
The company is one of the prominent business groups among a clutch of 44 ponzi companies operating in the state which are under the scanner of CBI and ED after an order of the Supreme Court in this regard.

ED, according to records accessed by PTI, has accused the firm of running a ponzi scheme and perpetrating an estimated Rs 800 crore fraud duping numerous investors belonging to the state and a few others from West Bengal and Assam.
The agency had registered an FIR in this case last year after taking cognisance of complaints filed by Odisha police and the vigilance department.
The probe, under PMLA, found that the group has been running the alleged chitfund scheme by running cooperative societies and taking money from investors as it promised them "unrealistic" returns on investments.
ED, official sources said, found these cooperative societies floated by the group to have allegedly fudged KYC, accounting and registration norms in order to perpetrate the scam.