News Analysis India

Tag: Rose Valley

  • ED seizes seven vehicles in Rose Valley PMLA case

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate has seized seven four-wheeled cars after it recently conducted fresh raids in connection with the multi-crore rupees Rose Valley money laundering case.

    The federal probe agency said in a statement on Friday that it conducted raids on November 10 at seven locations in West Bengal following which it seized two Mahindra Bolero SUVs, a Honda City car, a Toyota Innova, a Tata Indica, a Hyundai Verna and a Mahindra XUV having total value of about Rs 1 crore.

    “These vehicles were found to have been acquired out of the proceeds of crime by the companies of the Rose Valley group,” it said.

    Properties worth a total of Rs 1,103.61 crore have been attached in this case till now by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

    The Rose Valley group of companies has been accused of collecting “huge amount of money from gullible public by floating various fake and fictitious schemes and defaulting on re-payments.”

    The probe found, the ED had earlier said, that several properties in West Bengal, Odisha, Tripura, Assam, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and others states were “acquired in the name of various companies of the group by illegally diverting the funds collected from the common public”.

    The ED had filed a criminal case of money laundering against the firm, its chairman Gautam Kundu and others in 2014 and also later arrested him in Kolkata.

    Multiple chargesheets have been filed by it in this case even as the probe continues.

  • Rose Valley ponzi scam: Enforcement Directorate takes possession of Rs 304-crore assets

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate on Friday said it has taken “possession” of assets worth Rs 304 crore in connection with its money laundering case in the alleged Rose Valley ponzi scam that took place in West Bengal and Odisha.

    “Possession has been taken of properties of the Rose Valley group of companies throughout West Bengal, Tripura and Odisha under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). This includes 412 movable properties amounting to Rs 47 crore and 426 immovable properties worth Rs 257 crore,” the central probe agency said in a statement.

    The Rose Valley group of companies “had collected huge amount of money from gullible public by floating various fake and fictitious schemes and defaulted the re-payments”.

    It said that the probe found that several properties in West Bengal, Odisha, Tripura, Assam, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and others states were “acquired in the name of various companies of group, by illegally diverting the funds collected from the common public”.

    These assets were earlier provisionally attached by the ED under the anti-money laundering law and after getting approval from the Adjudicating Authority (under the PMLA), the agency is empowered to take possession of such properties.

    The ED had filed a criminal case of money laundering against the firm, its chairman Gautam Kundu and others in 2014 and later arrested him in Kolkata. Multiple charge sheets have been filed by it in this case till now even as the probe continues.

  • 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 arrests wife of Rose Valley Group chairman Gautam Kundu in chit fund case

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: The Central Bureau of Investigation on Friday arrested Subhra Kundu, wife of the jailed owner of Rose Valley Group chairman Gautam Kundu, from Kolkata in connection with the probe into the multi-crore chit fund scam, sources in the agency said.

    Sleuths of Economic Offences Wing of the CBI apprehended Subhra Kundu and will take her to Bhubaneswar after obtaining transit remand from a court in Kolkata, they said.

    The case was registered in the Odisha capital.

    She was wanted by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the case.

    The Rose Valley group allegedly cheated thousands of depositors, promising abnormally high returns on investments in its illegal schemes.

    According to CBI sources, the amount of money garnered by the group through such schemes could be more than Rs 12,000 crore.

    Rose Valley had also made substantial investments in hotels and resorts across the country, they said.

    Subhra Kundu was running a jewellery chain, Adrija, which has been sealed since the investigation started.

    The ED, which is looking into the money laundering aspect of the scam, issued a look-out notice against her in November 2019.

    Her husband, Gautam Kundu, was arrested by the ED in March 2015 on the basis of a complaint filed by SEBI, and he has been in jail since then.

    So far, the ED has attached more than Rs 2,300 crore properties of Rose Valley.