ED FILES CHARGE SHEET AGAINST 4 FOR LAUNDERING ₹830 CRORE

MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday filed a charge sheet against four persons in a money-laundering case worth $125 million (around ₹830 crore) involving the software firm Geodesic Limited (GL).

One of the accused is a chartered accountant (CA) at the firm, whose name has also been featured in the Panama papers.

The charge sheet, called the prosecution complaint in ED parlance, named Dinesh Jajodia, CA and tax consultant of GL, Prashant Mulekar, executive director, Kiran Prakash Kulkarni, managing director and Pankaj Omkarprasad Shrivastav, chairman of the firm, as the accused. “All four have been arrested. Jajodia and Mulekar are in judicial custody while Kulkarni and Shrivastav are in ED custody,” said an official.

ED has alleged that Geodesic had defrauded shareholders and Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds (FCCB) holders by creating a web of shell companies. It collected funds through FCCB investments abroad but failed to repay the amount to the Londonbased bank which acted as the trustee.

Jajodia was the director and authorised signatory of various overseas companies located in UAE, Hong Kong and the British Virgin Islands. The funds were raised under FCCB but were instead diverted into shell companies, ED stated. The investigation was conducted under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).