After the searches, the agency has seized 17 high end luxury cars including Ferrari, Lamborghini, Land Rover, Rolls Royce, Bentley, Mercedes Maybach, etc worth more than Rs 60 crore.
The Enforcement Directorate has arrested Roop Bansal, promoter of real estate firm M3M, in a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The arrest was made after the ED carried out searches at seven locations of real estate developers IREO Group and M3M Group in Delhi and Gurugram. According to officials, investigations were conducted against the firms for allegedly diverting, embezzling and misappropriating funds. ED unearths money laundering of over Rs 400 crore by IREO Group and M3M Group.
Rs 400 crore game
Several FIRs have been registered against the IREO Group, due to which the ED started investigating the matter. The investigating agency has also alleged that a huge amount of hundreds of crores of rupees was siphoned off through the M3M group. The central agency said the probe by the ED revealed that in one transaction, M3M Group received around Rs 400 crore from IREO Group through several shell companies in multiple layers. This transaction was shown as development rights in the books of IREO Group.
This is how the Rs 400 crore game started
ED said that one land was with M3M Group and the market price of the other land was around Rs 4 crore. M3M Group initially sold the development rights of the land to five shell companies for a payment of Rs 10 crore. It was claimed that all five are unrelated companies. Investigation reveals that the five shell companies belonged to the M3M Group. Subsequently, five shell companies allegedly sold the development rights of the same land to the IREO Group for approximately Rs 400 crore.
Shell companies were running at the behest of Bansal brothers
The agency said that after receiving an amount of Rs 400 crore from IREO Group, the shell companies immediately transferred the amount to M3M Group using multiple layers. According to the probe agency, all the shell companies were owned and operated by the M3M Group under the direction of its promoters Basant Bansal and Roop Kumar Bansal and their family members. In this way, IREO and M3M defrauded the investors/customers and the company to the tune of about Rs.400 crores. The money was used by M3M for other investments and debt repayments.
Property worth crores confiscated
The ED alleged that the IREO Group made no effort to develop the land and started writing off the investment every year. After the searches, the agency has seized 17 high end luxury cars including Ferrari, Lamborghini, Land Rover, Rolls Royce, Bentley, Mercedes Maybach, etc worth more than Rs 60 crore. Apart from these, jewelery worth Rs 5.75 crore, Rs 15 lakh in cash and incriminating documents have also been seized.
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