CBI finds 339 shell firms used to divert ₹2,900 cr

The CBI has unearthed multiple complex webs involving 339 shell companies used for allegedly diverting funds unscrupulously to the tune of ₹2,900 crore as part of its probe into such cases over the last three years.

CBI sources said the companies were allegedly being used by suspects to divert loan funds for specified purposes, creating fake invoices, and ‘round-tripping’ of funds to evade taxes and generate black money.

Round-tripping is sending money to tax havens abroad in the guise of payments for fake imports through shell companies and bringing back that money, showing it as “foreign investment”.

The findings of the CBI are just a tip of the iceberg as these are only those cases where the agency has been able to find ‘legally-tenable’ evidence of money trail, cheating and diversion of funds to cheat banks, said sources not willing to be named.

The murky activities have been exposed during the CBI probe into various loan fraud cases involving 28 public sector banks and a private bank, sources said.

Besides this, the agency is probing about 200 bank fraud cases involving funds of at least ₹30,000 crore, they said.

The CBI is prosecuting these companies for corruption and scheduled offences associated with it. It will also refer these cases to other investigating agencies for action under various laws like the Companies Act, Prevention of Money Laundering Act, Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act, Income Tax Act, etc.