Page 7 - Enforcement Directorate

Excise case: Will file reply to Kavitha's bail plea by Aug 22, ED tells SC

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that it will file its response to BRS leader K Kavitha's bail plea in a money laundering case linked to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam by August 22. Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, appearing for the ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation, told a bench of Justices B R Gavai and K V Viswanathan that the CBI's counter affidavit has already been filed in the matter. Raju said the ED's counter affidavit was in the "pipeline" and would be filed by August 22. The bench posted the matter for hearing on August 27. The apex court had on August 12 sought responses from the CBI and the ED on Kavitha's pleas challenging a July 1 Delhi High Court order denying her bail in the two cases. The high court had dismissed Kavitha's bail pleas in both the cases, saying she was prima facie one of the main conspirators in the criminal conspiracy related to the formulation and implementation of the now-scrapped Delhi Excis

ED, Cyber Crime conduct search ops at 20 locations in Magicwin case

The ED's investigation revealed that the Magicwin website was involved in illegal activities such as betting

ED attaches assets worth Rs 29 cr in Ponzi scheme running Pearlvine

The Enforcement Directorate on Friday said assets worth more than Rs 29 crore have been attached under the anti-money laundering law as part of an investigation against a fraud investment website that ran a Ponzi scheme across the country. The action has been taken against the portal --www.pearlvine.com -- that runs under the banner of Pearlvine International, the central agency said in a statement. The money laundering case stems from an FIR filed by the CID of Meghalaya Police on a complaint made by the RBI. Pearlvine International was an "unrecognised" entity, which claimed itself to be US-based and provided several lucrative investment options. It collected a minimum amount of Rs 2,250 as membership fees and ran a Ponzi scheme in India between 2018 till March, 2023, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said. During this period, the company organised seminars all around the country soliciting membership and popularising its benefits, the central agency said. At one point of time in

ED arrests 4 in Chinese-linked online betting app fraud worth Rs 400 cr

Four persons have been arrested in connection with a Rs 400 crore "fraud" online betting and gaming app allegedly linked to some Chinese nationals, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said on Friday. Arun Sahu, Alok Sahu, Chetan Prakash and Joseph Stalin were taken into custody under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in the case related to the app named 'Fiewin', the federal probe agency said in a statement. The money laundering case stems from an FIR filed at the Cossipore police station in Kolkata against some unknown persons for "cheating" and "conspiracy" with a number of online gamers through the app. "An amount of Rs 400 crore was generated from the Fiewin app fraud and thereafter was credited into eight Binance (global crypto exchange) wallets in the name of Chinese nationals. These wallets were operated from the Chinese mainland as revealed by the access IP logs. "The Chinese nationals communicated with and instructed the four accused persons through

Bank fraud: ED attaches Rs 678 cr worth land assets of Avantha Group

Land assets worth more than Rs 678 crore of the Avantha Group have been attached under the anti-money laundering law as part of an alleged bank loan fraud linked probe, the Enforcement Directorate said Thursday. A provisional order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) has been issued to attach the properties located in Haryana, Maharashtra and Uttarakhand. The assets belong to various group companies of Avantha Group, "owned and controlled" by businessman Gautam Thapar. "On 19.08.2019, CG Power and Industrial Solutions Ltd had made disclosure under Regulation 30 of the SEBI (listing obligations and disclosure requirements) Regulations, 2015 to Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange regarding findings which had potential implications on the financial position of the company. "The disclosure made by CG Power and Industrial Solutions Ltd. revealed that assets and liabilities of the company have been understated considerably," the ED said in a statement. It w

ED summons Dabur's Mohit Burman, others in Religare money laundering probe

Religare open offer case: Dabur Chairman Mohit Burman, three independent directors of Care Health Insurance and the manager of the open offer have been summoned by the Enforcement Directorate

ED starts restitution of flats worth Rs 20 cr to cheated Gurugram buyers

The Enforcement Directorate has initiated the process of restitution of flats worth more than Rs 20 crore to homebuyers of a Gurugram realty project who were allegedly cheated by the builder company, official sources said Wednesday. The case pertains to flats constructed by the SRS Group as part of projects like SRS Pearl, SRS City and SRS Prime. The process to restitute 78 flats of genuine homebuyers in these SRS projects has been initiated following the Appellate Tribunal, instituted under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), issuing an order on August 12 allowing the ED to return these flats worth a total Rs 20.15 crore to their rightful claimants. The central agency in January 2020 had provisionally attached assets worth Rs 2,215 crore as part of a money laundering investigation against the SRS Group of companies in a case related to alleged fraud committed against a number of homebuyers and investors. It was alleged by the ED that the SRS group of companies received

Money laundering charges framed against TMC MP Saket Gokhale, says ED

A special PMLA court in Ahmedabad has framed criminal charges, under the anti-money laundering law, against TMC's Rajya Sabha MP Saket Gokhale on Tuesday, the Enforcement Directorate said. "The Ld. Principal District and Sessions Judge, Ahmedabad (Rural) and designated Special Court PMLA, Ahmedabad today framed criminal charges against Saket Gokhale, MP Rajya Sabha and national spokesperson of All India Trinamool Congress under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002...," the central agency said in a statement. It said a charge sheet was filed against the 31-year-old MP under the anti-money laundering law last year. "Charges against him for the scheduled offence in the police case (Gujarat Police) had also been framed," it said. The special court had also rejected the application filed by Gokhale under Section 309 of the CrPC for keeping the proceedings under PMLA, 2002 in abeyance till the case of scheduled offence registered against him is decided by the court,

SC delays ruling on Abhishek Banerjee's plea over ED summons in job scam

TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee and his wife's plea challenged the ED summons in connection to a money laundering investigation related to an alleged school job recruitment scam in West Bengal

SC junks plea challenging order to consider NDTV's application under FEMA

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea by the ED challenging a Bombay High Court order, which directed the RBI to consider the compounding applications filed by NDTV in a case of alleged FEMA violation. A bench of Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Augustine George Masih said no case for interference was made out. The high court, in its 2018 order, set aside objections raised to the compounding proceedings by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which had earlier flagged the alleged Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) violations and issued showcause notices to NDTV. In November 2015, the ED issued showcause notices to the news organisation for allegedly flouting foreign exchange regulations while availing of overseas and foreign direct investment facilities to the tune of more than Rs 2,000 crore. In March 2016, NDTV filed an application with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for compounding of the contraventions alleged in the showcause notices. However, a year later, the RBI to

ED registered more than 5,200 money-laundering cases since 2014: Govt

More than 5,200 money-laundering cases have been registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), with convictions obtained in 40 and acquittal in three since 2014, the government informed Parliament on Tuesday. The data was provided by Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha. A total of 5,297 cases were lodged under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) by the ED between 2014 and 2024, the data said. It said 40 cases resulted in conviction during the said period. However, one case resulted in acquittal during this year while two cases led to acquittals in 2017, the data shared by the minister showed. A total of 375 accused are currently under arrest under the anti-money laundering law for the period between 2016 and 2024, he stated. Rai also provided similar data for cases registered under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), apart from acquittals and convictions under the anti-terror law between 2014 and 2022

Manish Sisodia not innocent, 'neck deep' in scam: ED, CBI tell SC

The Supreme Court was hearing pleas filed by Manish Sisodia, who was seeking bail in cases linked to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam

Crypto scam: ED seizes Rs 1-cr cash during raids in Leh, other places

An amount of Rs 1 crore and "incriminating" documents were seized following raids against operators of a "fake" cryptocurrency investment company that cheated people in Ladakh and some other places, the Enforcement Directorate said Sunday. The searches were undertaken on August 2 in Leh, Jammu and Sonipat in Haryana under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Officials had said this was the first time that the federal anti-money laundering agency carried out searches in Ladakh. The probe pertains to cheating of innocent people, including people of Leh, by assuring them of doubling their investment in a short period of 10 months through investment in fake cryptocurrency named Emollient Coin, the agency said in a statement. This "fake" cryptocurrency, as per the ED, was represented and promoted by Naresh Gulia of Sonipat through a company named Emollient Coin Limited that was incorporated in September, 2017 in the United Kingdom. The business was promoted a

ED undertakes first-ever searches in Ladakh in cryptocurrency fraud case

In its first ever raids in the Union Territory of Ladakh, the Enforcement Directorate on Friday conducted searches as part of its money laundering probe linked to a cryptocurrency fraud case in which investors lost more than Rs 7 crore worth of deposits, officials said. The agency's zonal office here raided at least six premises in Leh town of Ladakh, Jammu in J-K and Sonipat in Haryana in the case against A R Mir and others. It is alleged that 2,508 investors deposited more than Rs 7.34 crore in a fake cryptocurrency business in the name of "Emollient Coin Limited". They, however, did not get any returns or currency back, and these funds were laundered by the business' promoters to purchase land assets in Jammu. The money laundering case stems from a March 2020 FIR registered in Leh and some other complaints filed in the Union Territory (UT) of Jammu and Kashmir (J-K) against Mir and Ajay Kumar Choudhary. Police in Leh in their FIR stated that an inquiry was conducted by a committ

ED attaches immovable properties worth Rs. 298.21 crore of Chettinad Group

ED initiated an investigation based on an FIR registered by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC), Chennai

SC to hear ED plea challenging HC's order for Hemant Soren's bail on Jul 29

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on July 29 an Enforcement Directorate plea challenging the Jharkhand High Court's order granting bail to Chief Minister Hemant Soren in a money laundering case linked to an alleged land scam. A bench of Justices B R Gavai and K V Viswanathan is scheduled to hear the federal agency's plea against the June 28 order of the high court. Soren, the executive president of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), had resigned as chief minister shortly before the ED arrested him on January 31 in the case. After coming out of jail on bail in the case, he took oath as the chief minister of Jharkhand on July 4. Earlier during the hearing in the high court, the ED's counsel had argued that if Soren was released on bail, he might commit a similar offence and referred to cases against ED officers in the SC/ST police station. "Though the conduct of the petitioner has been sought to be highlighted by the Enforcement Directorate on account of the First Information Rep

Elvish Yadav appears before ED for questioning in money laundering case

YouTuber Siddharth Yadav alias Elvish Yadav appeared before the Enforcement Directorate here on Tuesday for questioning in a money laundering case linked to suspected use of snake venom as a recreational drug in parties he hosted and related financial transactions, official sources said. The agency will record his statement at its zonal office located at Ashok Marg here. The central agency had registered a case in May and pressed charges under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after taking cognisance of an FIR and charge sheet filed against him and linked persons by the Gautam Buddh Nagar (Noida) district police in Uttar Pradesh. Elvish Yadav was summoned by the agency in the second week of July but he sought deferment of the summons owing to his scheduled foreign travel and professional commitment. Rahul Yadav alias Rahul Fazilpuriya, a singer from Haryana allegedly linked to Elvish Yadav, was questioned by the ED in the said case, they said. Alleged generation of ...

ED arrests Sonepat Congress MLA Surender Panwar in illegal mining case

In January, the probe agency had conducted extensive searches at premises linked to Surender Panwar and his associates in Haryana's Sonepat

ED attaches immovable properties valued at Rs 300 cr in Gurugram village

The raids, carried out on July 16, also led to the seizure of digital devices and incriminating documents

ED attaches Rs 300 cr worth land of M3M realty in case involving Congress

The ED on Friday said it has attached land in Gurugram, worth over Rs 300 crore, of real estate group M3M as part of a money laundering probe linked to an alleged land fraud case that also involves Congress leader and former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. To attach the land, a provisional order was issued by the federal probe agency under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The 88.29 acres of land is located in Basharia village of Harsaru tehsil in Haryana's Gurugram district that borders Delhi. The land is valued at Rs 300.11 crore, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said in a statement. In a statement, a spokesperson of the real estate group said they were "highly disappointed with the highly unwarranted, unjustified and uncalled for action by the ED...to provisionally attach its land asset which is in no way connected with any offence and under no circumstances can be placed in the purview of proceeds of crime as understood under the PMLA." The money ..