Rose Valley Ponzi scam: ED attaches Rs 130cr assets

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate Thursday attached assets worth Rs 130 crore in connection with its money laundering probe in the Rose Valley Ponzi scam case, officials said.

The agency said it has issued a provisional order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), attaching immovable and movable properties having a collective "market value” of Rs 130 crore.With the latest action, the total value of assets seized in this case stands at about Rs 4,400 crore, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said in a statement.

The agency had registered an FIR against the firm, its Chairman Gautam Kundu and others in 2014 under the PMLA. Kundu was arrested by the agency in Kolkata in 2015. At present, he is in judicial custody. Multiple charge sheets have been filed in the courts in Kolkata and Bhubaneswar by the ED in this case.

The group had allegedly floated a total of 27 companies for running the alleged chit fund operations out of which only half-a-dozen were active.

The agency has alleged that the firm had floated the scheme promising inflated returns on investments between eight and 27 per cent to gullible investors in various states.  

The company had allegedly pledged astronomical returns to depositors on land properties and assets and bookings done in the real estate sector.

The company has also been accused of making “cross investments” in its various sister firms to suppress its liabilities towards investors.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) had probed the company before the ED and the CBI registered cases against the group.

The ED has pegged the total volume of the alleged irregularities at
Rs 15,000 crore, including interest and penalties.

Two days back, the ED summoned Trinamul Congress parliamentarians Sudip Bandopadhyay and Tapas Pal, asking them to be present by next week for questioning in connection with the Rose valley money laundering scam.

Mr Bandyopadhyay and Mr Paul are out on bail after spending time in the prison in connection with the case. The Rose Valley scam is considered as the biggest Ponzi fraud in India, in which thousands of small investors were allegedly cheated.