NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has held that gains from investing bribe money in the stock market remain tainted and qualify as proceeds of crime, upholding the Enforcement Directorate’s power to attach wealth traced to illicit origins. The court held that appreciation through market forces does not cleanse the funds of their corrupt origin.
A division bench of justices Anil Kshetarpal and Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar, in a November 3 judgment, explained that money-laundering is continuing in nature.
“The offence of money laundering being continuing in nature is not confined only to the initial act of criminal acquisition but also extends to every process or activity connected with the proceeds, including layering through multiple transactions, integration into the legitimate economy and projection of the acquired wealth as lawful.” The court passed the judgment while allowing the appeals of the ED challenging a single judge order in relation to the case arising from the allocation of Fatehpur Coal Block in favour of M/s Prakash Industries Limited (PIL).