Goodwin accused took money on pretext of running a trust: EOW

The owners of Goodwin Jewellers, Sunilkumar Mohanan Akkarakaran and his brother Sudheerkumar, arrested in the ₹25-crore fraud case, had taken money from investors

The owners of Goodwin Jewellers, Sunilkumar Mohanan Akkarakaran and his brother Sudheerkumar, arrested in the ₹25-crore fraud case, had taken money from investors on the pretext of running a trust but used it to operate their companies, the Thane Economic Offences Wing (EOW) said on Tuesday. Their police custody has been extended till Thursday.

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According to the police, the duo started the Goodwin Trust in 2005. They followed the rules applicable to run a trust for the initial years, but 2011 onwards began flouting the norms.

“While probing the receipts of Goodwin’s investors, we discovered that the company was named as a trust. However, the accused deposited the money in the bank account opened under the name of a company. The rules to operate a trust and a company are different. The duo used the money in the company’s accounts to purchase land in Kerala and elsewhere. Both the accused knew that they were committing fraud, but continued to do so until they began to suffer losses,” a police officer told HT.

Investigation officer Vanita Patil said EOW will request the court for forensic accounting experts to study the details of all the transactions made by the two accused, after the discrepancies in the receipts came to light.

EOW told the court that it police will attach a 78-acre land at Kodaikanal, which the brothers had bought three years ago.

The duo paid taxes regularly, but received rebates as the taxes were paid under the name of a trust, said the police. EOW will now question two accountants who worked for Goodwin Jewellers in this regard.

During investigation, an EOW team had taken the two accused to their jewellery stores at Naupada, Ambernath and Dombivli. However, the jewellery kept at the stores were fake, said the police. “The duo said they had invested in mutual funds to repay the investors. However, we discovered that a large chunk of the investors’ money was used to buy properties,” the officer said.

There are nine cases of cheating and fraud against the accused. They were arrested on December 13.