Court allows ED to seek details of Nirav Modi’s overseas assets
special court on Monday approved the Enforcement Directorate’s request to issue a letter rogatory to six countries in the Punjab National Bank fraud case.
“The LR (letter rogatory) request is for the purpose of identification and seizures of proceeds of crime and collecting documents, which are required in connection with the investigations under PMLA,” said special public prosecutor Hiten Venegaonkar, who appeared on behalf of the investigative agency.
A letter rogatory is a formal request from a court to a foreign court for judicial assistance.
In the application copy, which has been reviewed by Mint, the investigative agency alleged that firms related to Nirav Modi, the man at the centre of the ₹11,400crore scam, have siphoned off ₹6,498 crore of banking funds and these were further laundered.
“The accused generated huge proceeds of crime amounting to ₹6,498 crore, which had been siphoned off by them and thereby laundered and amalgamated in mainstream financial system to project it as untainted property,” ED said in its application to the special court, set up under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
ED suspects that some parts of the funds could have been laundered and parked in Hong Kong,
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the US, the UK, the UAE, South Africa and Singapore.
“He (Nirav Modi) spread his business operations in various countries. He had apparently got issued multiple high value Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) in favour of his firms/companies from Punjab National Bank, which resulted in disbursement of funds as per the SWIFT messages sent by PNB,” ED said in the application copy.
SWIFT stands for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication.
According to public records with the Registrar of Companies (RoC), Firestar International Ltd has 48 subsidiaries. Four of these are based in India.
Meanwhile, CBI issued summons to Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi to appear on Monday, but in an emailed reply they said they cannot appear as their passports have been suspended, said the ED official.