Vijay Mallya has laundered ₹1301.67 crore: ED
Mumbai city news: The agency suspects that Mallya has 13 shell companies in the United States, Ireland, Mauritius and France
Liquor baron Vijay Mallya has laundered Rs1301.67 crore though various shell companies in India and abroad, claims the Enforcement Directorate in the complaint filed before the special court for Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The agency suspects that Mallya has around 13 such shell companies in the United States, Ireland, Mauritius and France.
The central agency had last month filed a complaint/charge sheet against Mallya and nine others which included top officials of IDBI bank, from where Mallya had obtained a loan of Rs950 crore. Taking cognisance of the complaint of the central agency, the PMLA court issued arrest warrants against all the accused.
In its complaint, the ED listed various shell companies including M/s PE Data Centre Resources Private Limited, M/s Pharma Trading Limited, M/s Kingfisher Finvest Limited, Devi Investment Private Limited, M/s Mallya Investment Private Limited, and M/s Gem Investment.
The agency claimed these shell companies had no actual activities and their directors were ex-employees of Mallya’s United Breweries group. The agency further claimed that some of the companies had not even hired any employees and only these directors were on the payroll. The agency alleged that these companies were directly under Mallya’s control.
The agency alleged that one of the shell companies – PE data Centre Resources Private Limited -- had obtained a loan of Rs100 crores and funds were transferred to the account of Kingfisher Airlines. The agency claimed that the only purpose of these companies was to either obtain loans or launder money.
The agency claimed that Mallya had parked around half of the loan amount obtained from IDBI bank outside India in shell companies he had set up. “Out of 900 crores, Rs417.29 crores have been remitted out of India for payments shown to be made towards aircraft rental lease, maintenance, services and several such purposes. However, no documents were submitted to support such transaction. Thus, it appears to be laundering,” the complaint claimed.
The agency examined the lease rates and amount paid towards maintenance and other services by other airlines and by Kingfisher and found discrepancies in what Mallya’s firm had done. In this context, the agency cited the payments made to two Mauritius-based firms, Veling Narain Ltd and Veling Sacheedanand Ltd, towards lease and maintenance of aircraft and pointed out that these were nothing but shell companies with former UB group employees as directors.
The agency said it had so far managed to attach immovable property worth Rs807.82 crores owned by Mallya. The agency claimed that Mallya has huge amounts of property in the U.S. in the name of his daughters – Leana and Tanya.
The agency further alleged that Mallya had a total of 291.31 acres in several villages in Karnataka, including Bilgeri, Coorg, Madekeri, and Kumboor. However, when the situation started getting worse, the agency claimed that Mallya managed to dispose of 264.80 acres in January 2016. The agency claimed that the transactions were done in a rush.
The central agency is continuing its probe into the property and accounts held by Mallya outside India.