Dehradun Mar 30 PTI The Enforcement Directorate ED has provisionally attached immovable properties worth over Rs 31 crore belonging to Pushpanjali Realms and Infratech Limited and the wife of the real estate firms director Rajpal Walia under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act PMLAThe ED initiated a money-laundering investigation on the basis of an FIR lodged at the Rajpur police station in the city in July 2020 against the firm its directors and others under various sections of the Indian Penal Code IPC for cheating and duping innocent flat buyers after taking advance payments from them for booking flats in respect of the companys construction projects agency sources here saidIt was found during the investigation that the advance booking amount received from the flat buyers was diverted by the directors of the company for other purposes and invested in buying properties in their own names and those of their family members the sources saidFunds to the tune of Rs 3115 crore are involved in the matter they addedAccordingly immovable properties worth Rs 3115 crore in the form of land belonging to the company and a residential house and a flat belonging to Walia which were transferred to his wife were attached under the provisions of the PMLA the sources saidFurther investigation in the case is in progress PTI ALM RC

New Delhi Jan 18 PTI The Enforcement Directorate ED on Tuesday raided multiple locations in poll-bound Punjab as part of a money laundering probe against companies involved in illegal sand mining in the border state officials saidThey said at least 10-12 locations in the state are being covered by the officials of the federal agency and the action is being undertaken under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act PMLASome people with political links are also stated to have been coveredThe state is poll-bound with voting slated to take place for its 117 assembly seats on February 20 PTI NES DV DV

New Delhi Dec 22 PTI The Enforcement Directorate ED on Wednesday said it has attached funds worth Rs 4064 crore as part of a money-laundering probe in connection with a case of cheating gullible depositors through fake mobile phone applications linked to payment gatewaysThe attached money in accordance with the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act PMLA is in the form of bank deposits and an amount held with payment solutions providers it saidThe federal probe agency did not disclose the identity of either a businessmen accused in the alleged cheating racket or the payment gateways involvedIn a statement the ED said its case is based on a June 1 FIR of the cyber crime cell of the Bengaluru PoliceIn the police FIR it was alleged that the accused entities induced the public to invest through Powerbank and Sunfactory applications on mobile phones by assuring to remit interest on daily or weekly basisThe accused entities closed their purported business after collecting huge sum of money from gullible public the agency saidThe accused neither paid interest nor returned the principal amount to the investors and withheld their money through these fraudulent mobile applications it addedThe ED investigation found that the accused entities accepted investment of more than Rs 300 crore by setting up a merchant account on behalf of a seemingly legitimate business and availed payment solutions from payment gateways and payment solutions companiesThe agency alleged that the accused entities deviated from their declared line of business and collected money from the public by floating untenable investment schemes through mobile applications listed on Google PlaystoreThe funds have been settled into the accused entities bank accounts after collection from the public in the name of investment with the help of illicit use of services provided by payment aggregators it said PTI NES RC

New Delhi Dec 20 PTI The Enforcement Directorate ED has summoned actor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan for questioning in a case linked to the 2016 Panama Papers global tax leaks case officials said on MondayAishwarya Bachchan 48 the daughter-in-law of superstar Amitabh Bachchan has been asked to depose before the agency in DelhiThe ED has been probing the case since 2016 when the global leaks came to light It laterissued notices to the Bachchan family asking them to explain their foreign remittances since 2004 under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme LRS of the RBI PTI NES MIN MIN

New Delhi Dec 20 PTI The Enforcement Directorate ED has summoned actor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan for questioning in a case linked to the 2016 Panama Papers global tax leaks case officials said on MondayAishwarya Bachchan 48 the daughter-in-law of superstar Amitabh Bachchan has been asked to depose before the agency in DelhiThe ED has been probing the case since 2016 when the global leaks came to light It laterissued notices to the Bachchan family asking them to explain their foreign remittances since 2004 under the Reserve Bank of Indias RBI Liberalised Remittance Scheme LRSSome other instances of alleged irregularities linked to the family are also under the scanner of the federal probe agency the officials saidDubbed Panama Papers an investigation of a stockpile of records from Panamanian legal firm Mossack Fonseca by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists had named several world leaders and celebrities who had allegedly stashed away money abroad in offshore companies Some of them are stated to be holding valid overseas accounts PTI NES MIN MIN

Mumbai Sep 28 PTI The Enforcement Directorate ED on Tuesday arrested an alleged aide ofShiv Sena MP BhavanaGawaliin connection with a money laundering investigation officials saidSaeed Khan was placed under arrest under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act PMLA and will be produced before a local court here for further custody by the agencyThe arrest pertains to a case of money laundering related to alleged financial irregularities in certain trusts linked to Gawali a Member of Parliament from the Yavatmal-Washim Lok Sabha seatThe agency had last month conducted searches at multiple premises in Yavatmal Washim and Mumbai in this caseThe ED case is based on a Maharashtra police FIR against some accused related to a Rs 18 alleged crore fraud and some linked irregularities PTI NES DV DV