 "ED arrested 374 people in 5 years, directors of companies among them: Govt")
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested 374 people, including directors of corporate firms, in the last five years under the anti-money laundering law, the government informed Parliament on Monday.
Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary, in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, said that in major cases of "corporate fraud" like those against the Sterling Biotech group, a Vadodara-based company promoted by the Sandesara brothers, Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, the ED has attached properties worth Rs 33,862.20 crore.
The ED is a federal probe agency entrusted to implement the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
"Out of these, assets worth Rs 15,113.02 crore have been confiscated and restituted to the public sector banks."
"Further, the consortium of banks led by SBI has realised Rs 7,975.27 crore by sale of assets handed over to them by the Directorate of Enforcement," the minister stated.
He was responding to a question on the action taken to prevent money laundering by corporates.
The minister said that 374 persons were arrested by the ED in the last five years -- between April 1, 2018 and February 28, 2023 -- which includes "a number of directors of corporates involved in money laundering."
"No separate data related to corporate fraud is being maintained because PMLA cases generally involve several other offences also," he said.