Execution Direction | Photo: X @dir_ed
Land assets worth over Rs 678 crore of the Avantha Group have been attached under the anti-money laundering law as part of an alleged probe linked to a bank loan fraud, the Enforcement Directorate said on Thursday.
An interim order has been issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to attach the properties located in Haryana, Maharashtra and Uttarakhand.
The assets belong to various companies in the Avantha Group, which is “owned and controlled” by businessman Gautam Thapar.
“On August 19, 2019, CG Power and Industrial Solutions Ltd had made a disclosure, pursuant to Regulation 30 of the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015, to the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange in respect of findings having potential implications on the financial position of the company.
“The disclosure made by CG Power and Industrial Solutions Ltd. revealed that the company’s assets and liabilities have been significantly understated,” the CEO said in a statement.
Advances to related and unrelated parties were found to be understated, certain assets were provided as collateral, the company was appointed as co-borrower and/or guarantor to enable the financing of loans which were immediately diverted away from the company without proper authorization, it said.
This notice of disclosure, according to the agency, was taken by the lending banks and based on the complaint filed by the SBI, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a case in June 2021 against CG Power and Industrial Solution Ltd., Gautam Thapar, KN Neelkanth, Madhav Acharya, B Hariharan, Omkar Goswami and unknown public servant(s) and private person(s) for perpetuating a “banking fraud” on the consortium of banks to the tune of Rs 2,435 crore.
ED’s money laundering case stems from this CBI FIR. It had earlier attached assets worth over Rs 14 crore and filed a chargesheet under the PMLA, besides arresting a “key managerial personnel” of the company named Madhav Acharya.
It was later found that Rs 1,307.06 crore had been “diverted” to Avantha Group companies by obtaining loans, the ED said.
Most of these funds were paid “without proper authorization” from the board of directors and the funds ultimately paid to the Avantha Group companies remained outstanding, he said.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been reworked by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First published: August 15, 2024 | 14:10 IS
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