ED Restores The Liquidator Four Flats In Money Laundering Case Against Mehul Choksi
These properties were attached under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in the PNB loan fraud case.
The Enforcement Directorate on Monday said it has restored to the official liquidator four Mumbai flats attached by it as part of a money laundering investigation against absconding diamantaire Mehul Choksi. The assets are located in Project Tatva, Urja A Wing, Dattapada Road in Borivali (East) of the western metropolis. These properties were attached under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in the PNB loan fraud case.
The flats were handed over to the liquidator on November 21, enabling it to proceed with the monetisation of these assets for the benefit of victims, secured creditors and other legitimate claimants, the federal probe agency said in a statement.
Restitution of assets is a provision available under the PMLA and is aimed at restoring funds or properties to those victims, including banks, who were duped by individuals and companies through a loan or investment scheme fraud.
Till now, the ED said, immovable and movable properties located in Mumbai, Kolkata and Surat worth Rs 310 crore have been handed over to the liquidator of Gitanjali Gems Ltd., a company of Choksi. Choksi is currently fighting his extradition to India from Belgium.
In order to expedite the process of restitution of properties to the victim banks, the ED and the lenders (banks) took 'proactive' steps towards monetisation of assets, the agency said.
The two agencies (ED and banks) moved a special PMLA court in Mumbai seeking approval to carry out valuation and auction of the attached or seized properties and then deposit the sale proceeds in the cheated banks as fixed deposits, it said.
Choksi's nephew Nirav Modi, their family members and employees, bank officials and others were booked by the ED and the CBI in 2018 for perpetrating the alleged loan fraud at the Brady House branch of the Punjab National Bank (PNB) in Mumbai.
It was alleged that Choksi, his firm Gitanjali Gems and others 'committed the offence of cheating against PNB in connivance with certain bank officials by fraudulently getting the LOUs (letters of undertaking) issued and got the FLCs (foreign letter of credit) enhanced without following prescribed procedure and caused a wrongful loss to the bank'.
