NEW DELHI: The Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) has arrested a person named Dortse, who is believed to be the mastermind of a racket of incorporating large numbers of shell companies with Chinese links in India and providing dummy directors on their Boards.
The arrest was made after simultaneous search and seizure operations conducted by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) on 8 September 2022 on the offices of Jillian Consultants India Private Ltd in Gurgaon, Fininty Pvt Ltd at Bengaluru and Husys Consulting Ltd in Hyderabad.
Dortse is on the Board of Jillian India Ltd, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Jilian Hong Kong Ltd. After his arrest, Dortse was produced in the jurisdictional court, which gave the SFIO his transit remand. Dortse had shown himself to be a resident of Mandi in Himachal Pradesh.According to the MCA, evidence procured during the enquiry by RoC Delhi and the simultaneous search operations points to dummy directors being paid by Jilian India to act as dummies in several shell companies.
During the search operations, boxes filled with company seals and digital signatures of dummy directors have been recovered from the site. Investigation suggests that Indian employees were in touch with the Chinese counterparts through a Chinese instant messaging app. Husys Ltd was also found to be acting on behalf of Jilian India Ltd.
Husys apparently had a pact with Jilian Hong Kong Ltd. An MCA statement said that investigations so far have revealed the possible involvement of these shell companies in serious financial crimes detrimental to the financial security of the country. The MCA, under whose aegis SFIO operates, had assigned the investigation of Jilian Consultants India and 32 other companies to SFIO on 9 September 2022.
Dortse and one Chinese national are the two directors in Jilian Consultants. Based on inputs and the investigations carried out, it was found that Dortse had fled from Delhi NCR to a remote place in the state of Bihar and was attempting to escape India through the road route. Immediately, a special team was constituted in SFIO which was deputed to the said remote place.