News Analysis India

Tag: chit fund

  • Chit fund case: ED attaches assets worth Rs 5 crore of West Bengal-based journalist

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Assets worth Rs 5 crore of a senior West Bengal-based journalist, Suman Chattopadhyay, and his family members have been attached under the anti-money laundering law in connection with an alleged chit fund scam, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said on Thursday.

    The federal probe agency issued a provisional order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for attaching bank accounts and duplex flats situated in and around Kolkata.

    The action pertains to the ED probe into the transactions of the ICore group of companies. The agency had filed a money-laundering case, taking cognisance of an FIR lodged by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against the group and others.

    “ICore group companies ran a chit fund scam and the group illegally raised a huge amount of money from lakhs of gullible investors by promising unrealistic returns,” the agency alleged in a statement.

    Chattopadhyay, it said, “personally and through his company Disha Productions and Media Private Limited, has received proceeds of crime to the tune of Rs 9.83 crore from the ICore group in the guise of business investment in the company”.

    Apart from the ICore group, Chattopadhyay also received funds from other chit fund companies such as Saradha Group through the same modus operandi and had come under the ED scanner previously in the Saradha group case, the agency said.

    Chattopadhyay, then the editor of a leading Bengali daily, was arrested by the CBI in 2018 in the same case.

    The ED attached assets worth Rs 300 crore of the company, its promoters, directors and others in September last year.

  • Court convicts Rose Valley group official for money laundering

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: A special PMLA court in Kolkata has convicted an official of a Rose Valley group company and awarded him seven years rigorous imprisonment on money laundering charges, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said on Saturday.

    The central probe agency had registered an FIR against the firm, its Chairman Gautam Kundu and others in 2014 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

    Kundu was arrested by the agency in Kolkata in 2015. “The court has sentenced Arun Mukherjee to suffer rigorous imprisonment of seven years and to pay a fine of Rs 2.5 lakh in default rigorous imprisonment for another six months,” the ED said in a statement.

    READ| Rose Valley returned Rs 10,500 crore to investors: ED

    It said Mukherjee was debenture trustee and was responsible for the acts and affairs of the Rose Valley Real Estates Construction Ltd company and had pleaded guilty for the offence of money laundering before the court.

    It was alleged, the ED said, before markets regulator Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) that Rose Valley Real Estate Construction Limited and its associate companies repeatedly floated secured nonconvertible debentures during 2001-2002, 2004-2005, 2005-2006 and in 2007-2008 and issued them to more than 49 persons in each financial year, illegally raising a total sum of Rs 12.82 crore.

    The agency said the probe found that this company “under the direction and control of accused persons had accumulated investments from 2,585 persons, a total of around Rs 12 crore and acquired control over various securities as defined under various sections of the SEBI Act”.

    “The money so acquired was further laundered by investing the same in various movable properties,” it said.

    The charges were framed in this case in February, 2012 and trial of other accused is ongoing, it said.

  • CBI raids magician PC Sorcar Junior’s residence in chit fund probe

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Officials from the economic offences wing of the CBI on Friday carried out a search operation at the residence of noted magician P C Sorcar Junior, sources said.

    The action was necessitated as some financial links allegedly between Sorcar and the now-defunct ponzi company Tower Group were unearthed, they said.

    The chit fund company is alleged to have transferred money to the bank account of Sorcar, who was the brand ambassador of Tower Group at one point of time, the CBI sources said.

    The search operation lasted for around two hours at his Mukundapur residence, the aim of which was to get hold of documents related to the association between the renowned magician and the firm, they added.

    Sorcar could not be contacted for comment.