Enforcement Directorate Mumbai restitutes assets worth ₹289.54 crore in money-laundering case

Enforcement Directorate restitutes ₹289.54 crore worth of properties to MPID Authority in Pen Co-operative Urban Bank case.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED), Mumbai Zone, has restituted immovable properties worth ₹289.54 crore to the Competent Authority under the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (MPID) Act appointed by Government of Maharashtra in the case of M/s Pen Co-operative Urban Bank Limited.

At least two lakh depositors and 42,000 shareholders of Pen Co-operative Urban Bank have lost their money in a money-laundering case. 

In a press statement released on Friday evening (January 17, 2025), the ED officials said the assets were provisionally attached by the ED under Section 5 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, as the erstwhile office-bearers had cheated the banks and siphoned off the bank funds for private investments.

Thousands of depositors trapped in scam-hit coop bank

“The investigation was initiated based on the First Information Report (FIR) registered by Pen Police Station from Raigad district of Maharashtra. The charge sheet filed by the Law Enforcement Agency (LEA) said the office-bearers of the bank entered into criminal conspiracy with then auditors of the bank willfully and intentionally manipulated the books of accounts of Pen Bank and fraudulently reported profit and caused a loss of ₹651.35 crore to the bank,” the ED statement said.

Investigations revealed that the proceeds generated out of crime of forgery and cheating was diverted and routed through the bogus cash credit accounts opened in the said bank using the services of cheque discounters in the market. Part of such Proceed of Crime (POC) was utilised for the purchase of immovable properties at various locations in Raigad in the names of third parties as benami properties. These properties measuring 70.9 acres and valued at ₹25.20 crore were attached under Section 5 of PMLA on May 26, 2014 and December 03, 2014.

Two years gone, no action on Rs 758 crore scam