CBI books diamond merchant for laundering money

NEWDELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has booked Hong Kong-based diamond merchant Girish Kadel and three senior officials of the Customs department in Mumbai, including former commissioner Vinay Brij Singh, for allegedly overvaluing imported diamonds as part of what it terms a “trade-based” money laundering operation.

Trade-based money laundering is the process of disguising the proceeds of crime and moving value through the use of trade transactions in an attempt to legitimise their illicit origins, mainly through the misrepresentation of the price, quantity or quality of imports or exports.

The agency has been probing several diamond merchants, including Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, for over two years now.

In the latest FIR, the CBI has alleged that Kadel received 5,599 carats of rough diamonds overvalued at over Rs 156 crore instead of Rs 1 crore with the intention of facilitating money laundering. The overvaluation by Kadel was previously being examined by the Directorate of Revenue of Intelligence (DRI), after which the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) decided to hand over the case to the CBI.

Along with Kadel, the CBI has named Vinay Brij Singh, posted as commissioner airport (special cargo) Mumbai when the alleged irregularities took place in 2018, deputy commissioner (imports) Chandravanshi Y Manikanhaiya and deputy commissioner (special intelligence and investigation branch) Ashiquzzaman in the FIR. A sanction under Section 17A was duly taken before registering a case against the Customs officials, the agency said.

Ten other people and three companies were also named as accused by the agency in its FIR registered last week.

A CBI official said Girish Kadel reportedly runs diamond business in Antwerp, Mumbai, Chennai and Hong Kong. “Kadel conspired to import rough diamonds at highly exaggerated value with a view to siphoning/remitting the excess foreign exchange overseas to cover the differential cost of other imports, as well as park money abroad for unlawful activities,” according to the CBI FIR.

Girish Kadel, who runs a company called Diamond Vault NV, told HT from Belgium, “I am a Belgium national. I left India in 2002 and have no business there. I don’t know why the CBI has filed a case against me.

The CBI refused to comment on the case.