New Delhi, May 4 () The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday said it recently conducted searches at six premises in Thrissur, Kerala, belonging to Manappuram Finance Limited and its Managing Director V.P. Nandakumar and froze Rs 143 crore lying in various accounts.
The searches were conducted as part of an investigation under the PMLA into the allegations of money laundering from the illegal collection of deposits from the public.
The ED searches resulted in the detection of evidence regarding money laundering and large scale cash transactions in the form of public deposits, done by Nandakumar through his proprietary firm, Manappuram Agro Farms (MAGRO) without RBI approval.
The deposits were illegally collected by him at various branch offices of MFL which is a Public Listed Company, through some of its employees.
“The outstanding illegally collected deposits which is the Proceeds of the Crime have been detected to be Rs 143 Crore. When RBI detected the same and directed to return the amount to the depositors, the accused have responded to RBI that they have returned the money to the depositors but the ED investigation revealed that there is no proof of repayment or no KYC of the depositors,” the ED said.
The ED said that Rs 53 Crore of deposits are shown to have been returned in cash, but with no proof of repayment or KYC.
During the course of searches, it was found that the proceeds of crime have been diverted and invested by Nandakumar into immovable properties in his name, and the names of his spouse and children and in the shares of MFL.
“Hence ED has freezed the assets of Nandakumar totalling to Rs 143 Crore. The assets freezed includes 8 bank accounts, investment in listed shares and shares of Manappuram Finance Limited. In addition, various incriminating documents evidencing money laundering and property documents of 60 immovable properties were also seized during the course of search for further investigation,” the official said.
The role of the CFO of Manappuram Finance Limited and other employees, suspected to have assisted in the offence of money laundering, is being investigated.
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