Court freezes flat of Mumbai businessman for Ponzi scam laundering
PTI |
New Delhi | Updated: Dec 23 2013, 16:01 IST
SUMMARY
A special money laundering court here
has ordered attachment of a flat worth over Rs 22 lakh in Maharashtra belonging
to a Mumbai-based businessman accused of duping investors of Rs 500 crore
through illegal ponzi schemes.
special
money laundering court here has ordered attachment of a flat worth over Rs 22
lakh in Maharashtra belonging to a Mumbai-based businessman accused of duping
investors of Rs 500 crore through illegal ponzi schemes.
The
case had shot to prominence last year after the Enforcement Directorate (ED)
got a first-time access to freeze Swiss bank accounts of Sayed Mohammed Masood,
Chairman of Mumbai-based 'City Limousine', whom the agency is probing for
floating illegal ponzi (fraud investment plans) schemes by promising
extraordinary returns which were not honoured.
The
agency is probing the case under the Prevention of Money laundering Act (PMLA)
alongside the Economic Offences Wing of Mumbai Police.
Subsequent
to pressing these laundering charges, the ED provisionally attached a flat in
Pune's Wakad area in the name of Ryewood Retreat Motels, which has Masood as
its Additional Director.
The
Adjudicating Authority, under Chairman K Raamamoorthy, for PMLA offences termed
the purchase of the flat "as proceeds of crime" and that it is
involved in money laundering by defrauding the hard earned money of gullible
investors.
The
probe agencies had filed a charge sheet in this case last year stating that
close to 28,000 complaints from the investors were received by them in this
regard and Masood's companies had cheated investors "to the tune of more
than Rs 500 crore".
The
charge sheet filed by EOW and taken cognisance by the ED, states the modus
operandi of this fraud scheme case.
"...the
companies (floated by Masood) had lured general public into various schemes
offering astronomical returns to the tune of above 48 per cent interest per
annum and after payment of the promised returns for some period, his companies
failed to keep their promises and the cheques issued to various investors had
bounced.
"Investigations
conducted so far has revealed that more than 40,000 cheques issued to the
investors had bounced due to paucity of funds and the fact of insufficient
funds in the banks clearly demonstrates that the investor's money has been
diverted by Masood for purposes other than declared business activities and
thereby cheating the public at large. This had culminated into cheating of
the investors/public by not paying the promised returns to the
investors," the charge sheet said.
The
Adjudicating Authority is the appellate mechanism for affected parties who are
at the receiving end of strict enforcement action like attachment or sealing of
properties by agencies like the ED.
The
attachment, under PMLA, ensures that seized properties cannot be used by the
accused and he or she cannot take any benefits from these assets.http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=201463
City Limo chief's plea to quash Mumbai
proceedings denied
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New Delhi, Nov 14 (IANS): The Delhi High Court Thursday dismissed a plea of
the chairman of City Limouzines, who allegedly duped thousands of investors
to the tune of Rs.500 crore, seeking to quash proceedings against him at a
special court in Mumbai.
A division bench of Chief Justice N.V.
Ramana and Justice Manmohan declined to entertain Sayed Mohammed Masood's
plea, saying that the alleged crime was committed in Mumbai, and the
"cause of action" lies outside its territorial jurisdiction.
The bench said that not only were the
companies which duped over 25,000 people incorporated in Mumbai, but also the
investigation, the FIR and the subsequent complaint under the Prevention of
Money Laundering Act, 2002, was filed in a Mumbai special court.
"It is pertinent to mention that in
the entire petition there is not even a whisper as to what cause of action in
favour of the petitioner (Masood) had accrued within the jurisdiction of this
court and why this court should exercise jurisdiction," the bench said.
The court directed Masood to approach the
Bombay High Court with his plea instead.
Masood, who is also chairman of at least
ten other City Group companies, had in 2002 launched an investment scheme by
the name of 'Go-Vehicle on rental basis and earning by sitting at home' in
which investments were invited from general public assuring high returns.
When the company shut operations in 2009,
more than 42,000 cheques issued by it to investors stood dishonoured.
The enforcement directorate, probing the
case, had in its complaints before the special court in Mumbai alleged that
the companies floated by Masood had not only collected monies from investors
by luring them with high returns but had also illegally transferred monies
abroad.
Moving the Delhi High Court for quashing of
proceedings in Mumbai, Masood contended that this court has jurisdiction to
decide the matter as substantial cause of action had arisen in Delhi and the
summons issued to him Dec 14 last year to appear in person was in the office
of Directorate of Enforcement, Delhi Zonal Office.
He further argued that even the arrest
order had been issued from the same Delhi office pursuant to which the
petitioner was actually arrested in Delhi.
The enforcement directorate had arrested
Masood on Dec 16 last year.
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PMLA court freezes Rs 1.93
crore funds of Mumbai chit fund firm
PTI Jul 21, 2013, 02.37PM IST
Tags:
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PMLA court|
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IDBI Bank|
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NEW DELHI: Cracking the whip on fraudulent
chitfund schemes and their operators, a special anti-money laundering court
here has issued freezing orders on Rs 1.92 crore of cash deposits of
Mumbai-based firm City Limouzines which allegedly duped hundreds of investors.
The Adjudicating Authority of the Prevention
of Money Laundering Act (Act), the judicial appellate court
for Money Laundering offenses, issued the orders after theEnforcement Directorate attached the accounts of the firm
after it finished its year-long probe in this case.
This is the second such order by the authority in the recent past after it
issued a similar directive freezing Rs 1.63 crore in bank accounts of owners of
chitfund companies running in Haryana and Punjab which have allegedly cheated
many people.
"....The defendants have, prima facie,
committed the scheduled offenses, generated proceeds of crime and laundered
them.Moreover, the cash balances lying in the accounts of Ms City Cooperative Credit
Society LTD held with IDBI bank, and the Maharashtra State Cooperative
Bank LTD and three
numbers of term deposits plus the interest accrued thereon with the Maharashtra
State Cooperative Bank LTD are involved in money laundering and, therefore,
liable for attachment," the recent order issued by the court of authority
member K Ramamoorthy said.
The total funds
attached stand at Rs 1,92,63,294.31 and the ED will now take the possession of
this amount.
The owner of the business, Sayed Mohammed
Masood, had been arrested by the ED last year after the agency registered a
money laundering case against him and others based on a compliant of the Economic Offenses Wing of Mumbai police.
The EOW, in its
charge sheet filed in 2010 in this case, has said that it received
approximately 28,000 complaints from investors alleging cheating by Ms City
Limouzines (India) Ltd and other city group companies.
The police and the
ED had said in their probe reports that the firms owned by Masood had floated
various attractive but impractical schemes offering high returns which
allegedly cheated investors to the tune of Rs 500 crore.
This case also
made headlines as the ED for the first time was successful in locating accounts
of the firms in Swiss banks and attaching them under criminal provisions of the
Money Laundering Act.
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