ED attaches assets worth ~1,489 cr in Adarsh cooperative society fraud case

NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday attached properties worth ~1,489 crore in connection with the Adarsh Credit Cooperative Society Ltd (ACCSL) fraud, the agency said in a statement.

Rajasthan police’s special operation group (SOG) in May arrested 11 people, including ACCSL chairman Ishwar Singh Sindhal, for allegedly siphoning off over ~1,400 crore of investors’ funds. The company ran Ponzi schemes and allegedly duped over 20 lakh depositors, the SOG said in May. The ED initiated a money laundering probe in the case on the basis of Rajasthan police’s First Information Report.

The statement said the probe so far has found that Adarsh Group’s MD, Mukesh Modi, allegedly in collusion with his relatives Virendra Modi, Rahul Modi and other associates, siphoned off depositors’ funds from ACCSL by way of inter-linked fraudulent transactions. “Mukesh Modi, his relatives and associates incorporated several companies/firms/ Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) for sole purpose of diverting funds from ACCSL to their real estate business by way of availing fraudulent loans.”

It said the properties were attached after the probe found that the office bearers of ACCSL were involved in money laundering. The attachments include land worth ~1,464 crore in Rajasthan, Haryana, New Delhi, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, and bank deposits amounting to ~24.44 crore. The ED said Mukesh also allegedly infused huge proceeds of crime as share capital from the ACCSL. “...The actions of Mukesh Modi and others caused ACCSL huge loss to the tune of around ~4,000 excluding interest charged by ACCSL on purported borrowings. Thus proceeds of crime were generated as a result of criminal activity.”