Vijay Mallya has 13 shell firms: Enforcement Directorate

Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) in its prosecution complaint against liquor baron Vijay Mallya has claimed that it suspects Mallya has around 13 shell companies in US, Ireland, Mauritius and France and with the help of them Mallya laundered more than Rs 1300 crores.

The ED in June has submitted its first chargesheet in special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court against 61-year-old Mallya and eight others into the alleged laundering of proceeds from a loan of around Rs 900 crores. The ED has alleged that the loan was taken for his now defunct airline, Kingfisher Airlines Limited, from IDBI bank but part of it was misused. .

The prosecution complaint states that the purpose of these companies was to either obtain loans or launder money. The ED has brought out the roles of other officials and executives of the airline and IDBI in the case after recording their statements.

The ED probe had taken under its scanner around Rs 423 crore, out of the loan amount, that was allegedly remitted out of India purportedly as payments towards aircraft rental leasing and maintenance, servicing and spare parts, said an agency source. The accused have so far denied the ED allegations.