PCL case: ED attaches assets worth ₹54 crore in Thailand, USA, UAE

The case pertains to a Collective Investment Scheme (CIS), allegedly run in contravention of the SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) Act and SEBI (CIS) Regulations

MUMBAI: The Mumbai unit of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached 30 assets worth over ₹54.32 crore located overseas in three countries as part of its money- laundering probe into an alleged investment fraud case against a firm, Pan Card Limited (PCL). While 22 of the attached assets are in Thailand, six others are in the UAE and two in the USA.

PCL case: ED attaches assets worth ₹54 crore in Thailand, USA, UAE

The assets were attached due to their link with the case’s proceeds of crime in the USA, Thailand and the UAE. They are in the name of the overseas subsidiaries of the Mumbai-based firm M/s Panoramic Universal Ltd (PUL) and a deceased accused, Late S Moravekar, in the Pan Card Clubs’ investment fraud case, ED officials said. These assets were allegedly acquired by making a total payment equivalent to ₹54.32 crore from 2002 to 2015.

It is alleged that PCL, from 1997 to 2017, collected investments from around 5.1 million investors across India despite not being authorised and subsequently failed to return over ₹5,000 crore to many of them. The ED began its investigation based on an FIR registered by the Mumbai police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) for various offences under the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The case pertains to a Collective Investment Scheme (CIS), allegedly run in contravention of the SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) Act and SEBI (CIS) Regulations. The investors were allegedly promised high rates of returns against the deposits, ignoring prevailing norms of SEBI and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), according to the ED.

The EOW later filed a chargesheet against PCL, PUL and 44 other related companies, and six directors and five marketing representatives of PCL under various sections of the IPC and the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (In Financial Establishments) Act,1999 (MPID).

The ED investigation revealed that proceeds of crime worth around ₹99 crore were allegedly diverted from PCL to PUL, apart from diversion of a part of that to the personal accounts of the family members of Moravekar, ED officials said. It was also revealed in the probe that in 2002, a hotel in New Zealand was bought through Overseas Direct Investment (ODI) by PUL. “Later, the asset was sold off and the Wholly Owned Subsidiary in New Zealand was closed without duly reporting to the Reserve Bank of India or any bank,” the official said. ODI refers to investments made by an Indian entity in a foreign country.

According to the ED probe, ODI investments were also made in the USA, UAE, Thailand and Singapore, remittances equivalent to around ₹100 crore were allegedly sent during 2002 to 2014 and assets were acquired in the name of overseas subsidiary entities. It was also revealed that there was a plan by the family members of an accused to sell off some of these assets in the USA and UAE.