CHENNAI: Distinct clues ranging from Facebook images and LPG gas cylinder deliveries to intelligence reports from Chennai Customs and data from the Tamil Nadu government’s commercial taxes wing were crucial to the Enforcement Directorate busting the International Trade Based Money Laundering (TBML) scam in Chennai.
Detected in 2016, the scam orchestrated the remittance of US dollars worth Rs 120 crore to Hong Kong through accounts of multiple shell companies at Indian Bank and Syndicate Bank in lieu of faked imports of electronics. The bank accounts themselves were created using forgery and impersonation. ED’s Chennai zone has got six convictions from 2019-2024 in the cases till date, which forms 14% of the agency’s 42 all-India count since the PMLA came into force. The trial in some more related cases is still ongoing.
In September 2016, it was the then manager of Indian Bank’s Thousand Lights branch, who flagged the first alert after noticing suspicious international transactions in newly opened current accounts of eight companies. He quickly verified with Chennai Customs the genuineness of import documents submitted by the account holders to send out foreign currency to Hong Kong.
The then Customs commissioner swiftly confirmed that the documents were fake and immediately issued an intelligence report. In addition, the bank was asked to stop the transactions and preserve its CCTV footage to help identify those operating the accounts. Since the Customs officer had worked with ED earlier, he realised that TBML was at play and directed the bank to file a complaint with the central agency. The CCTV footage helped ED establish that Mani Anbazhagan, one of the seven convicted, had been visiting the bank regularly to operate bank accounts in the name of other accused, who were hawala operators and name lenders.
Initially, the ED found it tough even to summon these accused, as the address, phone number, and photographs given in the bank KYC documents were fake. For instance, Liyakath Ali, the proprietor of one of the shell companies — Galaxy Impex — with an account in Indian Bank, had submitted documents in the name of his alias, Waseem Liyakath Ali. Using available information, the investigators then had to go on a virtual wild goose chase and rely extensively on human intelligence to track the accused.
This led them to a Facebook picture of an accused standing beside a car at an unknown location.
The licence plate details of the car were sent to the state transport department, which reverted with an address that turned out to be the accused’s hideout, leading to his arrest.
In another scenario, the ED noticed that an accused’s bank account received the subsidy amount from the union government after the delivery of LPG gas cylinders. However, the address linked to the bank was fake. With help from the gas agency, they deduced the correct address where the gas cylinders were being delivered regularly to the accused and he was arrested there.
In the trial court, ED also had to prove that the companies used for laundering were shell entities and no actual goods were being imported. This was done using details provided by Tamil Nadu’s commercial taxes wing, which showed that the accused had neither obtained a TIN (Taxpayer Identification Number) nor paid commercial taxes for the faked imports.
