NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday marked its 70th founding anniversary by posting record asset attachments of Rs 81,422 crore in the financial year 2025-26, a 171 per cent jump compared to the previous year's Rs 30,036 crore.
This is also the highest single-year total in terms of asset attachments in the agency's history.
The cumulative value of properties attached since the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) came into force has crossed Rs 2,36,017 crore.
Speaking at the event, Union Minister of State for Finance , Pankaj Chaudhary, described the agency as "the nation's shield against financial crime."
The minister highlighted the Supreme Court's recent observation that justice for victims must be accorded equal priority alongside the accused's right to a speedy trial.
He said the government had moved from a "need to know" to a "duty to share" basis for intelligence exchange among central agencies, calling inter-agency coordination a national imperative.
ED Director Rahul Navin pointed to a fundamental shift in the country's criminal landscape.
"A few years ago, our work was centred predominantly on bank frauds, large corporate scams, and real estate frauds. Today, the criminal landscape is defined by cryptocurrency fraud, cyber-enabled financial crimes, terror financing, anti-national activities, and narcotics trafficking," he said.
"The Directorate has proactively adapted to this shift. Our prompt and focused response in the Red Fort blast case is a testament to our sharpened vigilance on the money laundering dimensions of terrorism and espionage," he added.
The Red Fort blast case reference, Navin said, underscored the federal agency's growing role in dismantling terror-financing networks.
Notably, the ED has filed 657 main prosecution complaints under the PMLA in FY 2025-26, nearly double the 333 filed the previous year, along with 155 supplementary complaints, taking the annual total to 812.
Of all the prosecution complaints filed since the law came into force in 2005, over 41 per cent has been filed in the last two years.
The agency's conviction rate in completed money laundering trials stands at approximately 94 per cent, with 19 persons convicted during the current fiscal year.
Navin said restitution to fraud victims, including banks, investors and homebuyers, reached Rs 32,678 crore in FY 2025-26, more than double the prior year's Rs 15,263 crore.
Cumulatively, more than Rs 63,142 crore has been returned to rightful claimants, roughly a quarter of the total value of all assets ever attached by the directorate.
The single largest restitution order in the current year directed properties worth approximately Rs 15,582 crore to be transferred to the Justice R M Lodha Committee for distribution among hundreds of thousands of investors defrauded in the PACL collective investment scheme.
In the Rose Valley chit fund scam, which collected over Rs 15,000 crore from depositors across eastern India, assets worth more than Rs 500 crore were restituted in FY 2025-26 to a court-supervised disposal committee. More than 7.5 lakh victims are set to receive their money.
The ED also declared fugitive economic offenders at its fastest pace since the law's enactment in 2018, filing 28 applications in FY 2025-26 and securing declarations against nine individuals, compared with six applications and one declaration in the previous year.
Cumulatively, 54 individuals have been proceeded against and 21 formally declared fugitives, with Rs 2,178 crore in assets confiscated under the Act.
On the cyber and cryptocurrency front, the ED registered 256 cases of cyber-crypto fraud through March 2026, identifying proceeds of crime worth Rs 35,925 crore, of which Rs 12,570 crore has been attached.
Speaking on the shifting criminal landscape, Minister Chaudhary singled out "digital arrest" scams --in which fraudsters impersonate law enforcement officers to coerce victims, often the elderly, into transferring funds-- describing it as the most serious emerging category.
However, the minister noted that in some such cases, victims had their money returned through ED intervention.
In one transnational forex fraud case investigated jointly with the FBI, Danish police, Europol and Spain's Guardia Civil, the directorate seized approximately 97 cryptocurrency accounts valued at around USD 270 million.
The operation was subsequently recognised with the Egmont Group's best case award.
Concluding his address, Navin issued a warning to those seeking to exploit the financial system.
"Financial crime will continue to evolve. Criminals will continue to exploit new technologies, new jurisdictions, and new vulnerabilities. But so will we be adapting, innovating, and engaging with our counterparts across the country and around the world to stay ahead," he said.
"Our mission remains as vital today as it was seventy years ago... to protect the financial integrity of the nation and ensure that the proceeds of crime are returned to society," he added.