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Misappropriation of home buyers’ money: ED prosecution complaint leaves many questions unanswered
Not clear what happened to laundered money beyond the companies mentioned in the complaint, the agency is yet complete the money trail, says legal experts
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) which is investigating the money laundering aspect of a case pertaining to alleged misappropriation of home buyers’ money by realtors has left many unanswered questions in its prosecution complaint filed in a Panchkula court recently.
While the case pertaining to siphoning of home buyers’ money by real estate development company IREO through the M3M group of companies centered around the 78 acres in Rajasthan’s Bhiwadi (Alwar district) whose development rights were sold by Misty Meadows, an M3M group company, to 10 IREO group companies through five M3M shell companies thus facilitating the flow of funds from IREO group to M3M company, ED’s supplementary prosecution complaint does not mention the price for which Misty Meadows bought this land and the year of purchase.
“It is not clear what happened to the laundered money beyond the companies mentioned in the complaint. The chain of proceeds of crime will remain incomplete till the time it is investigated as what happened with the laundered money beyond the companies mentioned in the complaint. 28 M3M companies have been found involved in the commission of offence of money-laundering of funds by ED but the agency is yet complete the money trail,’’ said a legal expert monitoring the case. ED officials, when asked for a comment, said that they do not intend to respond to these questions.
Correlation between seized luxury cars and owner companies not explained
The federal agency during its search operations from June 1 to 4 on the premises related to the M3M Group of companies and its promoters as well as the residential premises of IREO Chairman Anurag Bhargava had confiscated 15 high-end luxury vehicles as proceeds of crime under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
A perusal of the complaint showed that many of these luxury vehicles seized by the ED were owned by companies that do not the figure in the ED’s supplementary prosecution complaint as accused and the agency is yet to establish the correlation between the seized luxury vehicles, their owner companies and the accused companies.
These are a Ferrari SF 90 Stradale Coupe V8 owned by Lavish Buildmart, a Rolls Royce Cullinan owned by Gentle Realtors, Lamborghini Urus, Mercedes Maybach GLS 600, Mercedes AMG 63 -G63 Wagon, all owned by Roshni Builders, Bentley Continental Flying Spur owned by Lekh Buildtech, Bentley Bentayga V8 and Porshe Cayenne, BMW M760 owned by Manglam Multiplex, an Audi Q7 in the name of Nourish Developers.
Eight other scams detected during probe
Legal experts have questioned why the ED had not set any time limit for completing the probe of eight other companies besides those involved in the IREO M3M Bhiwadi land scam.
For instance, RS Infrastructure Private Limited had figured in the 2018 Supreme Court-ordered CBI investigation of 1400 acres Gurugram land release case much before the present case. A case was registered by the CBI and subsequently by ED on the directions of the Supreme Court in 2018 in the release of 1400 acres in Gurugram.
The agency in its complaint has said that during the course of the investigation of IREO Group and the diversion of public funds to various entities, information/complaints about other scams where in funds were siphoned off was received by them. These are Commander Realtors Private Limited scam, RS Infrastructure Private Limited scam, IREO M3M Star City scam, Corridors project scam of IREO Grace Realtech, Blue Planet Infrastructure Private Limited scam, Madeira Conbuild Private Limited scam, Precision Realtors Private Limited scam, Su Estates scam involving IREO and M3M groups.
While the ED chose not to respond to questions in this regard sent by Hindustan Times, the complaint said it is pertinent to mention that this prosecution complaint covers only the IREO M3M Bhiwadi Land scam (with respect to the M3M Group).
“Some other alleged scams or diversion of funds are being investigated by different ED zones and units and separate prosecution complaints will be filed as and when completed. If it is found that any scam is related to this prosecution complaint, it would be investigated and covered in a separate supplementary prosecution complaint,’’ the ED said.
