ED’s crackdown on overseas “illegal” wealth: assets worth about ₹16,000 crore in 16 foreign jurisdictions attached

Enforcement Directorate attaches assets worth ₹16,000 crore across 16 countries in high-profile financial fraud cases.

From large tract of lands, residential premises and commercial properties, to bank accounts, overseas assets valued close to ₹16,000 crore across 16 foreign jurisdictions have been attached or frozen in the recent past by the Enforcement Directorate in more than 30 cases involving major business houses and prominent persons, including the founder and former chairman of Indian Premier League Lalit Modi, and the uncle-nephew duo Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi.

These properties are located in the United States, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Japan, France, Spain, Switzerland, Australia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, China, Hong Kong, Mauritius, Bermuda, archipelagic Comoros, and self-governing British Crown dependency Isle of Man.

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“In the cases where Proceeds of Crime (PoC) are tracked down to any other country, the ED may issue attachment/freezing/confiscation orders. For the service or execution of such orders, Chapter IX of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) provides for the mechanism to seek assistance from a contracting state where the PoC has been parked,” said a senior agency official, adding that a Letter Rogatory (letter of request) can be sent via courts in India to the court/authority concerned in the contracting state.

According to government records, the Sterling Biotech Limited “bank loan fraud” case tops the list with the attachment of properties worth ₹9,778 crore (movable assets: ₹2,538 crore) in the U.S., U.K., and Comoros. About 250 domestic and 100 offshore shell entities in countries like the U.S., U.K., U.A.E, Nigeria, Mauritius, British Virgin Islands, Panama, and Barbados, were used by the accused to divert and launder funds.

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Properties valued about ₹1,246 crore have been attached in Australia, U.S., and UAE, in the Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited (DHFL) case involving ₹34,615 crore. The probe is based on an FIR filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), its biggest ever “bank fraud” case, in which DHFL’s then CMD Kapil Wadhawan, director Dheeraj Wadhawan and others are accused.