Kolkata: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has made a provisional attachment of properties of former trustee of the South Point Education Society (SPES), Krishna Damani, worth about Rs 18.50 crore in the form of mutual funds and shares, in connection with the alleged siphoning off of funds under the guise of providing manpower and other services.
According to sources, Damani was previously arrested in February 2024 by the Kolkata Police in connection with a case of alleged siphoning off money amounting to Rs 10 crore from the school fund. After about three months of his arrest, Damani was granted bail under certain conditions. Meanwhile, the ED had taken over the investigation and filed a prosecution complaint against Damani for alleged money laundering using his position at the SPES.
In a statement in February this year, the ED had mentioned that an investigation was initiated on the basis of an FIR registered by Kolkata Police for siphoning off funds of SPES. During the probe, it was revealed that, under the guise of availing manpower and other services, Damani diverted funds to the tune of more than Rs 20 crore to entities owned and controlled by him and his family members.
The investigation also revealed that Damani had orchestrated the layering and integration of the proceeds of crime by distributing the funds diverted from charitable trusts to his family
members and controlled entities in the form of inflated salaries, directors’ remuneration and commissions, and by investing the same in mutual funds and other investments in his name and in the names of his family members, along with the companies controlled by him.