ED to attach Rana’s UK property
NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is set to attach a Central London property as well as fixed deposits worth around ~50 crore belonging to Rana Kapoor next week, people familiar with development said on condition of anonymity.
The attachment of property in London is the first major overseas act by the investigative agency in the case , which deals with Kapoor’s alleged use of the bank to extend loans in exchange for “kickbacks” as detailed in ED’s May 6, 2020, charge sheet against Kapoor.
The agency has identified that a company run by Kapoor’s daughter Rakhi Kapoor , Doit Creation Jersey Ltd, having investment of ~83 crore, has three properties in London including an office-cum-guest house at 77 South Audley Street, London worth 11.5 million British Pounds (around ~107 crore) and another residential property.
Without divulging details of the specific property under the scanner, one of the people cited in the first instance, an officer at the agency said: “One property in Central London will be attached next week under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), for which documentation is already done.”
Kapoor’s lawyer Subhash Jadhav declined comment.
The anti-money laundering probe agency has identified several properties owned by Kapoor’s family and companies run by them, including bungalows, villas, clubs, resorts, apartments, farmland, etc in Delhi, Mumbai, Goa, London, the US , the UK and other places worth several thousand crores, and the people cited in th first instance added that these may have been obtained with proceeds from kickbacks for loans given to undeserving companies.
Three of these bungalows are in Delhi’s Lutyen’s Zone alone , 40 Amrita Shergill Marg (worth ~375 crore), 18 Kautilya Marg (~195 crore) and 20 Sardar Patel Marg (~175 crore) . Then there is 7.5 acres of prime beach-front land in Alibaug, near Mumbai.
ED has already attached properties worth ~59 crore in India. “This will be first attachment abroad in Yes Bank scam. More will follow soon,” said the officer cited above.
Both ED and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) have already filed chargesheets in May and June respectively against the founder of Yes Bank and his family members.
While ED has claimed that Rana Kapoor used Yes Bank as his personal fiefdom to carry illegal activities over the years and that there was a poor credit culture, poor compliance culture, and centralization of power as well as lack of institutionalization in the bank.
“Rana Kapoor perpetrated the entire scam by firstly taking money out of Yes Bank under the garb of debentures and loans, by abusing his position in the bank and secondly, receiving kickbacks/gratification for the same,” ED’s chargesheet says.
The agency has pegged the proceeds of crime at ~5,050 crore and says a complex web of at least 100 shell companies was used to channel this money.
Loans worth around ~30,000 crore given under the tenure of Rana Kapoor (he co-founded the bank in 2004 and was MD-CEO till January 2019) have turned into bad loans and out of these, Rs 20,000 crore have become NPAs (non-performing assets), according to ED.
CBI has claimed in its chargesheet last month that Rana Kapoor conspired with Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan of DHFL (Dewan Housing Finance Limited) for benefitting each other using public money.
Kapoor is currently in Mumbai’s Taloja jail.