Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached immovable assets worth Rs 35.48 crore belonging to Raj Shroff & his wife, owners of M/s Jindal Combines Pvt. Ltd & M/s Orlando Trading Pvt. Ltd under Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) in a bank fraud case of Rakesh Wadhawan and Sarang Wadhawan Promoters of Housing Development Infrastructures Ltd (HDIL) and others (Mack Star Marketing Pvt. Ltd case). The attached assets are in the form of two commercial properties admeasuring approximately 10550 square feet area each in Kaledonia building in Andheri (East).
The ED initiated an investigation on the basis of FIR registered by CBI (ACB), Mumbai against Rakesh Wadhawan and Sarang Wadhawan, and others for siphoning off the loan to the tune of Rs 200 crore sanctioned by the Yes Bank to Mack Star Marketing Pvt Ltd. The ED had already initiated a probe under PMLA against HDIL, Rakesh Wadhawan, Sarang Wadhawan, and Joy Thomas, CMD of PMC bank Ltd and others. The Economic Offences wing of Mumbai Police had registered an FIR for causing wrongful loss & corresponding gain to themselves prima facie to the tune of Rs 4,355 crore to PMC Bank and ED had already attached properties worth Rs 366.3 crore along with the seizure of Rs 63.78 crore value.
The investigation revealed that Wadhawans fraudulently transferred one commercial property of Mack Star located in Kaledonia Building to M/s Jindal Combines Pvt. Ltd at a price of Rs 9.39 crore (having ready reckoner value Rs 15.64 crore at that time) in 2014 and another one commercial property to M/s Orlando Trading Pvt. Ltd at the agreement value of Rs 18 crore (having ready reckoner value Rs 19.84 crore) in 2016. However, they paid only Rs 10 crore for the second property till date. The firms were receiving rent of Rs 1.76 crore and Rs 1.39 crore per annum for these two properties respectively.
“Both the companies are owned by Raj Shroff (who is also incidentally son-in-law of political leader Sushilkumar Shinde) and his wife. Thus Rakesh Wadhawan and Sarang Wadhawan cheated the Mack Star Marketing Pvt. Ltd by illegally selling above said properties without the consent of the majority shareholder (DE Shaw Group which holds 83.36% shares) of M/s Mack Star Marketing Pvt. Ltd at a very low-price causing loss to Mack Star. ED had earlier attached property worth Rs 34.36 Crore in this case and now we have attached immovable assets worth Rs 35.48 crore in the form of commercial properties of M/s Jindal Combines Pvt. Ltd and M/s Orlando Trading Pvt. Ltd companies owned by Raj Shroff and his wife. The total value of attachment in this case now stands at Rs 69.84 crore,” said an ED official.
Source link