ED claims 40% lost to banks in PNB, Mallya frauds recovered
New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday morning claimed that about 40 per cent of the Rs 22,585 crore lost by banks in alleged frauds perpetrated by fugitive businessmen Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and Vijay Mallya had been recovered so far, adding that it had attached properties and assets worth 80 per cent of the fraud amount in these cases so far.
The ED's claims, in an official statement from the agency, came after the sale of attached shares worth Rs 5,800 crore on Wednesday.
The ED has attached and seized assets that it has valued at Rs 18,170.02 crore in these two cases, including Rs 969 crore worth of properties 'located' abroad.
"The quantum of the attached and seized assets represent 80.45 per cent of the total bank loss of Rs 22,585.83 crore," the ED said.
On Wednesday, out of these attached assets, the Debts Recovery Tribunal (DRT) on behalf of an SBI-led consortium that lent money to Mallya sold fresh shares worth Rs 5,824.50 crore of United Breweries Limited (UBL), the agency said.
The DRT action came after the ED transferred the shares worth about Rs 6,624 crore of UBL attached by it to the SBI-led consortium on the directions of a special PMLA court that is hearing these cases in Mumbai.
Commenting on the development, Union Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman tweeted: "Fugitives & economic offenders will be actively pursued; their properties attached & dues recovered."
According to the agency, the latest sale proceeds take the total value of recovery to Rs 9,041.5 crore, or 40 per cent of the over Rs 22,000 crore allegedly defrauded by the trio. "Further realisation of Rs 800 crore by sale of these shares is expected by June 25," the ED added. The banks have earlier "recovered" Rs 1,357 crore by a similar sale of shares in the case against Mallya and his now defunct Kingfisher Airlines, the ED said.
Another Rs 1,060 crore worth of assets were "restituted" to the banks earlier in the probe against Nirav Modi, they said.
"Thus, the banks shall be realising a total amount of Rs 9,041.5 crore through sale of a part of assets attached/seized by ED under the PMLA," it said.
The three, who fled overseas as a probe against them gathered pace, are being investigated by central investigative agencies such as the ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) after they were alleged to have cheated banks, and these frauds have been categorised as among the country's biggest criminal loan heist till date. The central agency gave the low-down on these two cases — the estimated Rs 13,000 crore fraud allegedly carried out by diamond trader Nirav Modi, his uncle Mehul Choksi and others in the Brady House branch of PNB in Mumbai and the about Rs 9,000 crore Kingfisher Airlines fraud triggered by Mallya — in a statement issued here.
It said the three "defrauded" public sector banks by siphoning off the funds through their companies which resulted in a total loss of over Rs 22,000 crore (Rs 22,585.83 crore in definite numbers) to a clutch of banks.
In addition, official sources said, Rs 329.67 crore has been realised in the government exchequer after Modi's assets were confiscated in July last year after the 50-year-old diamantaire was declared a fugitive economic offender by a special court in Mumbai.
The ED said the probe has "irrevocably proved" that the three used dummy entities controlled by them for rotation and siphoning off the funds provided by the banks.
"It was a myriad of domestic and international transactions and stashing of assets abroad," a senior officer said.
The ED also recovered assets like gold and diamond jewellery (of Modi and Choksi firms) from abroad to ensure they are not disposed of and are available to the banks and the government exchequer for seizure.
The agency said "a substantial part of these assets were held in the names of dummy entities, trusts, third persons, relatives of these accused and these entities were proxies of the three accused to hold these assets."
It said the extradition of Mallya (65) "has been ordered by the Westminster Magistrates Court and confirmed by the UK High Court".
"Since Mallya has been denied permission to file an appeal in the UK Supreme Court, his extradition to India has become final," it added.
It said Modi too has lost his extradition plea and has been in a London jail for the last 2.3 years.
Choksi (62) had mysteriously gone missing on May 23 from Antigua and Barbuda, where he has been staying since 2018 as a citizen, and later surfaced in neighbouring Dominica where from India is trying to get him deported.
