New Delhi, Aug 17 (IANS): The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday said that it has attached properties worth Rs 18.67 crore of the Kaka Group, Shashi Goyal and others in connection with its trade based money laundering case. An ED official said that the agency has attached assets of the Kaka Group worth Rs 16.97 crore, assets of Shashi Goyal wife of B K Goyal worth Rs 1.50 crore and Pragati Print Pack Pvt Ltd worth Rs 20 lakh.
The official said that the attached assets are in the form of agricultural lands, commercial sites and plots worth Rs. 16.97 crore and a residential flat worth Rs 1.50 crore and fixed deposit of Rs 20 lakh. The ED registered a case of money laundering on the basis of a FIR registered by Vizag Police against Vaddi Mahesh and others for fraudulently remitting huge foreign outward remittances (FOWR) to various front companies in Singapore, Hong Kong and China, on the pretext of import of non-existent customized software.
He said that the probe revealed that Mahesh had floated several shell firms or companies in India and opened many accounts with banks in Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad and Kolkata. "Then based on the instructions of B K Goyal, he remitted FOWR worth Rs 1,500 crore to around 40 foreign shell companies in Singapore, Hong Kong and China, in the guise of payments for import of non-existent customized software," the official said.
The official added that the probe revealed that BK Goyal is the mastermind behind the money laundering operation and he had supplied the funds and given instructions to Mahesh through three persons -- Vinit Goenka, Ayush Goyal and Vikas Gupta. He said that the funds sent outside India were further layered and parked in various off-shore accounts and could be utilised mainly for making compensatory payments for under invoiced Chinese imports or for creating assets abroad.
BK Goyal had also incorporated companies in Singapore and Hong Kong with his wife and son namely Shashi Goyal and Rahul Goyal, as the Directors and laundered part of the proceeds of crime to their companies, the official said, adding that he used this TBML network not only to remit and park his ill gotten money, but also offered its services to other suspect Indian importers or smugglers on a commission basis.
The official pointed out that the fund trail investigation of hundreds of the bank accounts was done to trace the source of the domestic funds. "It was found that funds were coming to the shell entities of Mahesh through layers of bank accounts. This was done to conceal the origin of the funds," he said.
The ED trailed the funds back up to three to four layers and has discovered cash infusion points and also came across some Indian importers who could have infused funds. "Bank layer analytics showed how money was layered from cash into obscure accounts of 'jamakharch companies, Multi-state Coop Societies, bogus companies' etc and then sent to the shell entities of Mahesh, which then made the FOWR for a paltry commission of a few rupees per lakh of dollars," the official added.
The official also said that the probe into the source of domestic funds revealed that an amount of Rs 59.58 crore was contributed from the bank accounts of the Kaka Group belonging to Yadavendra Kumar Roy and the same was laundered outside India through the shell companies of Mahesh. "Similarly an amount of Rs 20 lakh was received from bank account of Pragati Print Pack Pvt Ltd., which was laundered abroad," the official said.
The ED has filed two charge sheets in this case. Earlier B K Goyal was also detained under COFEPOSA by the DRI. He was arrested by the ED on September 3 last year and he is still in judicial custody. The ED also arrested Ayush Goyal, nephew of B.K. Goyal and Deepak Agarwal, authorised signatory of one of the foreign recipient companies - United Hill (China) Limited, Hong Kong. They are presently on bail.