The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested one person for allegedly incorporating various shell companies for illegal acquisition of foreign currency and transfer of funds
| Photo Credit: PTI
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested one person for allegedly incorporating various shell companies for illegal acquisition of foreign currency and transfer of funds to the tune of ₹329 crore abroad on the basis of fake import bills.
The accused has been identified as Jatin Chopra, a resident of Gurugram in Haryana. He has been arrested in a money laundering case based on a First Information Report (FIR) registered by the Delhi Police Special Cell.
Earlier in July, the ED had arrested four persons, namely Ashish Kumar Verma, Vipin Batra, Rupesh Batra, and Mohan Madaan. The accused had allegedly incorporated 20 shell entities and opened multiple bank accounts, which were used to acquire $4,52,31,799 on the strength of fake documents such as PAN cards, Aadhaar cards, and Voter ID cards.
“The Proceeds of Crime (PoC) were transferred abroad in the guise of payments for import of services. These persons were involved in a massive international racket/fraud whereby foreign currency was being acquired and proceeds transferred outside the country in a disguised manner through fraudulent means, causing threat to the economic security and financial system of the country, and resulting in losses to various government departments and wrongful gains to the accused,” said the ED.
On September 6, 2023, the agency filed a prosecution complaint against the four accused and 30 entities. The allegedly laundered money involving them was about ₹680 crore. Further, two provisional attachment orders with respect to assets, including bank balance and cryptocurrencies, worth about ₹22.93 crore were issued.
“During investigation, the agency zeroed in on some other suspects and among them was Mr. Chopra. They had been employing a similar modus-operandi for illegally remitting the PoC abroad (mainly to Hong Kong and Singapore) using forged import documents,” it said.
The accused set up 10 shell entities, opened their bank accounts in Canara Bank and acquired foreign currency in the form of $4,34,82,281 based on forged import documents, such as Bills of Entries, invoices, and other related documents.
“They transferred the PoC to foreign countries, mainly Singapore and Hong Kong, in the guise of third-party payments against fake import of garments from Bangladesh. In this way, PoC to the tune of ₹329 crore was acquired via the said 10 Canara bank accounts and then transferred abroad,” said an official.
The ED summoned Mr. Chopra several times, but he did not join the investigation. Consequently, the agency got a non-bailable warrant issued against him by a Delhi court. He was then arrested and his premises searched last Saturday (September 18, 2024).
Published – September 18, 2024 08:09 pm IST
