Karti in Dock as ED Flags 'Deals'
NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) sleuths doubt the genuineness of transactions in several companies linked to former Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s son Karti Chidambaram. The agency, probing FIPB approval in the controversial Aircel-Maxis deal, told a special court in Delhi that it would file a supplementary chargesheet after further probing spurious transactions.
The Enforcement Directorate said that Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt Ltd (ASCPL), which was owned by Karti Chidambaram, issued 2 lakh equity shares to Ausbridge in 2011 on payment of Rs 5 lakh at a price of Rs 2.5 per share. Investigators were surprised about this underselling as in 2008, ASCPL had allotted shares at a premium of Rs 77.50 per share and on March 31, 2010, the book value of an ASCPL share was Rs 140.33, which went up to Rs 1,219 on March 31, 2011.
As many as 10,000 ASCPL shares were held by Padma and Ravi Vishvanathan at the time of incorporation and subsequently it was brought under the control of two companies Ausbridge Holdings and Kriya FMCG Distributors. In 2009, CBN Reddy and KFDPL Ltd were allotted 19 per cent shares and in 2011 Ausbridge was allotted 66.67 shares. The ED told the court that Global Communication, Mauritius had sought approval for $800 million on January 30, 2006 and Ausbridge was incorporated on January 7, 2006. ED said that it was digging for more details of ASCPL transactions during this period as well as looking in three or four other companies.
The agency told the court that the net worth of 5 per cent equity share of Vasan Health Care Pvt Ltd held by ASCPL was Rs 102.65 crore in 2009, Rs 177.22 crore in 2010 and Rs 206.58 crore in 2011-12. ED said a Letter Rogatory executed on December 1, 2015 under Section 57 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) was sent to Singapore and UK and they were still awaiting a response from their counterparts there. Summons under PMLA had also been issued to examine T Ananda Krishnan and Augustus Ralph Marshall though the Ministry of Home Affairs and investigators were awaiting a response from their counterparts in Malaysia.