ED attaches properties of Viva group

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued a provisional attachment order attaching assets worth 34.36 crore of M/s Viva Holding, a company of Viva Group, in a bank fraud case against Rakesh Wadhawan and Sarang Wadhawan, promoters of HDIL.

The attached assets are in the form of two commercial properties admeasuring 15000 square meters area in Kaledonia building, Andheri East located at Mumbai valued at 34.36 crore. “During investigation under PMLA, it is revealed that Wadhawans illegally and fraudulently transferred two commercial properties of Mack Star in Kaledonia building. For the transfer of the said two properties, two separate sale agreements dated 26.06.2017 were prepared wherein sale value for both the subject commercial properties were shown as 34. 36 crore in total,” the agency stated on Monday.

“In the said sale agreements, the purchase amount was shown to be paid vide 37 cheques by Viva Holding to Mack Star Marketing Pvt. Ltd. against the purchase of the said properties. Investigation has revealed that these cheques were never encashed in the account of Mack Star and Viva Holding never made payments for the purchase of the said property to Mack Star. Wadhawans had illegally transferred these properties to Viva Group in violation of the article of association of Mackstar. Further, Viva Holding never showed these properties in its balance sheets,” it stated. The group is linked to Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (BVA) president and MLA Hirendra Thakur’s family. The MLA has earlier denied allegations.