HYDERABAD: Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached 15 immovable properties worth more than Rs 13.51 Crore belonging to Hyderabad-based M/s Servomax India Private Limited (SIPL) in a multi-crore bank fraud case. The attached properties are in the name of relatives of Directors Poreddy Chandrashekhar Reddy and Avasarala Venkateswara Rao and their benamidars. The attached properties are located at prime locations in and around Hyderabad.
ED had in January arrested Rao for causing a loss of around Rs 402 crore to a consortium of public sector banks by indulging in various fraudulent practices. The ED initiated a probe against Venkateswara Rao, Chandrasekar Reddy and other accused on the basis of a case registered by the CBI.
During the investigation, ED found that SIPL had availed loans from a consortium of banks including Letters of Credits (LC), Bank Guarantees (BG) and working capital loan and then diverted the same and did not use the loans for the stated purposes and did not repay the loans.
Fund trail investigation revealed that the company got issued LCs in the name of its related shell entities and without the supply of any material got the LCs discounted and routed back the proceeds of LC discounting and the promoters used it for their personal gain and to invest as share capital and advance loan in their businesses.
Further, money was also withdrawn in cash and through accounts of its petty employees. During the investigation, two benamidars Atluri Prasad and J. Rajesh of M/s Maruthi Travels admitted to laundering the crime proceeds at the behest of the main accused.
Despite liquidation of SIPL via NCLT, the promoters managed to alienate proof of concept (POC) and purchase assets in the names of their family members and benami entities.
Further investigation is in progress, said ED officials.
ED seizes properties in illegal Ephedrine manufacturing case
In a separate case, the ED provisionally attached immovable properties worth Rs 1.61 Crore belonging to S Nagaraju, Gadiparthi Satyanarayana and K Raju Paranthaman in connection with a case related to illegally manufacturing of ephedrine, a psychotropic substance.
The properties are located in Telangana and Tamilnadu.
ED initiated a money-laundering investigation against the accused on the basis of a complaint filed by the DRI under the NDPS Act for illicit manufacturing and trading of Ephedrine.
ED found that the accused have generated proceed of crime to the extent of Rs 5.23 Crore by trading in the illegally manufactured ephedrine. Investigation revealed that entire transactions have been made in cash without bills, invoices and permits from the authorities concerned.
It was also found that properties have been acquired by the accused by making payments in cash which are the proceeds of crime and accordingly, 16 landed properties located in Telangana and Tamilnadu valued at Rs 1.61 Crore have been provisionally attached under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Further investigation is in progress, ED officials said.