BENGALURU: The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has attached 52 immovable properties in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana worth Rs 32.37 crore in the Agri Gold Ponzi scheme fraud case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
The ED had initiated a money laundering investigation based on multiple FIRs lodged in AP, Telangana and Karnataka. “Agri Gold Group, led by Avva Venkata Rama Rao, allegedly ran fraudulent collective investment schemes in the guise of real estate business, for which more than 130 companies were floated. Agri Gold Group collected deposits from general public with a promise of providing developed plots/farm lands or withdrawal at a high rate of return on maturity/pre-term.
Thousands of commission agents were engaged to lure people with various schemes for hefty commission and managed to collect Rs 6,380 crore from 32,02,628 investor accounts. In the end, the gullible investors neither got plots nor could recover their deposits,” the ED stated in an official release on Tuesday. On December 24 last year, the ED had attached assets worth Rs 4,109.31 crore. “The total attachment value in the case now stands at Rs 4,141.68 crore,” the agency added.