CBI hot on the heels of fugitive con couple in Rs 531-cr scam

Agency says Soumit Ranjan Jena and wife Preeti living the high life in UAE; has initiated proceedings to extradite them

The CBI has initiated proceedings to extradite Soumit Ranjan Jena and his wife Preeti from Dubai for defrauding PEC Ltd, a Government of India enterprise, of Rs 531 crore, including the principal amount and the interest thereon. The agency said the couple is living the high life in the city of gold, as Dubai is popularly called.

PEC Ltd facilitates export and import of various commodities and guarantees payment to Indian exporters; it also grants financial facilities to importers in India. Jenas’ firm Pisces Exim defaulted on supply of iron ore and failed to refund the advance given to it by PEC Ltd. In July 2017, PEC blacklisted Pisces and its directors, the Jenas, for defaulting on the payment, and also filed a complaint to the CBI.

As per the CBI investigation, the money was laundered overseas by Soumit and Preeti Jena through Pisces Exim (l) Pvt Ltd, of which both were 50 per cent shareholders, and layered through multiple companies like Mascot Trading Limited which is registered in Lancashire, in the UK. The ill-gotten funds were then invested in assets in posh Manhattan, New York City and Dubai.

A look-out circular (LOC) was issued by the Bureau of Immigration, but the duo had already flown out.

They were later noticed owing to their extravagant lifestyle in Dubai.

Expensive yachts, premium luxury speed wheels and seven-star hotel stays became their undoing. The CBI was alerted when they were briefly detained last year by Muraqqabat police in Dubai for 2.6 million AED fraud and expired UAE visa. Soumit, allegedly in possession of a diplomatic passport (ICO666012), valid till January 21, 2023 allowed him to get immunity and to pay off the debtors. Both obtained St. Lucia Passport valid till March 2024 to travel again.

The CBI alerted the Interpol about the fugitives and issued a travel ban in April 2021, with an arrest warrant issued a month later on May 6, 2021.

The CBI is confident of extraditing the couple to India in a few weeks, to face trial causing loss of public money.

The money was laundered overseas by Soumit and Preeti Jena through Pisces Exim (l) Pvt Ltd, of which both were 50 per cent shareholders