NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday said it recently searched premises linked to an honorary counsel to Mauritius and promoter of the Chennai-based R R Group, Ravi Raman, as part of an investigation linked to an alleged fraud in foreign funds against him.
Eight locations "connected to" Raman were raided by the central agency on December 28 last year under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The money laundering case against Raman and his wife Shobhana Ravi stems from a Chennai Police Central Crime Branch (CCB) complaint that alleged cheating, forgery, and criminal conspiracy for "swindling foreign funds/investments of Rs 117 crore received from the Old Lane Group."
Raman, the ED alleged, funnelled the funds received from the group (Old Lane) in the form of FDI for the development of a tech park in Ambattur.
"Certain properties of group companies were kept as collateral/security in lieu of the funds received from the foreign investor and an irrevocable GPA (general power of attorney) was signed in favour of the foreign investor. Ravi Raman also filed a fake FIR on the basis of the pledged property documents being lost and subsequently sold the pledged properties by illegally cancelling the GPA," it said.
Ravi Raman siphoned off "some of the funds during the crime period through his Singapore-based entity R R Industries Singapore Pte Ltd which was further invested in Indonesian coal mines along with Novem Coal Resources Pte Ltd which is owned by his cousin," it said.
The agency said it seized Rs 64 lakh in "unaccounted" for cash, a significant number of property deeds, and documents having a value of more than Rs 850 crore during the searches.
The investigation also found that R R Group received other foreign investments from entities that are based overseas and it being investigated, the ED said.