HYDERABAD: The Enforcement Directorate (ED), Hyderabad Zonal Unit, has arrested chartered accountant (CA) Sharad Chandra Toshniwal under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in connection with its probe against Capital Protection Force Pvt Ltd, Amardeep Kumar and others. He was produced before the Special PMLA Court on Wednesday and remanded to 14 days’ judicial custody.
The ED launched its investigation based on three FIRs filed by the Economic Offences Wing, Cyberabad, alleging that Amardeep Kumar and his company cheated investors by promising high returns. Probes revealed that under the so-called ‘Falcon invoice discounting scheme’, investors were lured with assurances of returns on funds meant for invoice discounting. However, no such business was conducted, and investors were cheated of about Rs 792 crore.
According to the ED, Amardeep was the mastermind and had developed the Falcon Invoice app to mobilise deposits. Toshniwal, the statutory auditor of the company since inception, was allegedly aware of the fraudulent dealings and managed finances for Amardeep and his family. He is accused of assisting in laundering the proceeds of crime by routing funds into companies, including Rhett Healthcare Pvt Ltd, Rhett Herbal Pvt Ltd, RDP Workstations Pvt Ltd and Swastik Ghee Pvt Ltd. For his role, he allegedly acquired shares in these firms in the names of relatives and benamis.
Investigators further found Toshniwal arranged cash transactions worth Rs 14.81 crore without any business purpose, actively concealing the proceeds of crime. Earlier, the agency had attached movable and immovable assets worth Rs 18.14 crore in the case and arrested Amardeep’s brother, Sandeep Kumar.