(LiveMint)
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has traced more than Rs5,000 crore that has been funnelled through layers of shell companies controlled by jeweller Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case, two people directly aware of the matter said.
Based on the investigations, ED will likely file charges against Modi and Choksi within a month, the people, including an official at the investigative agency, said, requesting anonymity. The agency is probing alleged money laundering in the Rs12,636 crore PNB scam, involving billionaire diamond merchant Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, both of whom fled the country before the fraud was discovered in February.“The layers of companies appear to be shell structures. In the case ED suspects involvement of as many 40 shell structures,” said one of the two people cited above.
“Funds, instead of being directly transferred to overseas subsidiaries, have passed through at least two or more companies. And with loans not being refunded, such fund flow suggests mala fide intent. Even in previous fraud cases we have come across similar modus operandi,” said the ED official, the second of the two people cited earlier. “About half of Rs5,000 crore has come back to Modi and Choksi’s India-based firms as foreign investment or through hawala route.”
