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CBI books diamond merchant for laundering money

ByNeeraj Chauhan
Jan 14, 2020 11:38 PM IST

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has booked Hong Kong-based diamond merchant Girish Kadel and three senior officials of the Customs department in Mumbai, including former commissioner Vinay Brij Singh, for allegedly overvaluing imported diamonds as part of what it terms a “trade-based” money laundering operation.

HT Image
HT Image

Trade-based money laundering is the process of disguising the proceeds of crime and moving value through the use of trade transactions in an attempt to legitimise their illicit origins, mainly through the misrepresentation of the price, quantity or quality of imports or exports.

The agency has been probing several diamond merchants, including Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, for over two years now.

In the latest FIR, the CBI has alleged that Kadel received 5,599 carats of rough diamonds overvalued at over Rs 156 crore instead of Rs 1 crore with the intention of facilitating money laundering.

The overvaluation by Kadel was previously being examined by the Directorate of Revenue of Intelligence (DRI), after which the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) decided to hand over the case to the CBI.

Along with Kadel, the CBI has named Vinay Brij Singh, posted as commissioner airport (special cargo) Mumbai when the alleged irregularities took place in 2018, deputy commissioner (imports) Chandravanshi Y Manikanhaiya and deputy commissioner (special intelligence and investigation branch) Ashiquzzaman in the FIR. A sanction under Section 17A was duly taken before registering a case against the Customs officials, the agency said.

Ten other people and three companies were also named as accused by the agency in its FIR registered last week.

A CBI official said Girish Kadel is based in Hong Kong and reportedly runs diamond business in Antwerp, Mumbai, Chennai and Hong Kong.

“Kadel conspired to import rough diamonds at highly exaggerated value with a view to siphoning/remitting the excess foreign exchange overseas to cover the differential cost of other imports, as well as park money abroad for unlawful activities,” according to the CBI FIR.

The agency will get a Look out Notice issued for Kadel at airports and entry exit points, which is a procedure in such matters, said the official quoted above.

Girish Kadel, who runs a company called Diamond Vault NV and a blog named Diamond Circle, told HT from Belgium, “I am a Belgium national. I left India in 2002 and have no business there. I don’t know why the CBI has filed a case against me. They should have at least checked with me if I have any business there (India). I have come to India probably five times in the last 10 years and last time I visited was in 2017. I have never met any Customs officials in my life because I have no diamond business in India.”

According to the company website, Diamond Vault NV is a global diamond trading and full-service sales entity, with more than 400 clients in Antwerp itself. “Founded on an impressive, international trading network, Diamond Vault NV focuses on polished diamonds trading, providing ‘two-way quotes’ on almost any stone in stock,” it adds.

“We are a company with business worth Rs 250 crore and 90% of our business is in Europe. Our India sales are very small but I have no company in India or Hong Kong. We just made one export transaction in India to Antique Exim Pvt Ltd for which we have to collect $230,000 from it and the person is not paying.”

The agency claimed in its FIR that Kadel was a beneficiary of Antigue Exim.

The CBI refused to comment on the case.

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