Enforcement Directorate seizes over Rs 1,300 crore in assets in money laundering case against real estate group IREO and its promoters

• Image Credit: Internet

• Oct 16, 2022 | Kabir Chakraborty

The attached properties include land, commercial spaces, plots, residential houses, and bank accounts, according to a statement issued by the federal agency on Saturday. 

Digital Desk: As part of a money laundering inquiry,
the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached assets worth more than Rs 1,317
crore belonging to real estate group IREO, its managing director and vice
president Lalit Goyal, and associated entities.

The attached properties include land, commercial spaces, plots,
residential houses, and bank accounts, according to a statement issued by the
federal agency on Saturday. These attached properties are worth a total of Rs
1,317.30 crore. To file a money laundering case, the ED took cognizance of at
least 30 FIRs filed in various police stations in Gurugram, Panchkula,
Ludhiana, and Delhi against the group, linked entities, directors, key
managerial personnel, and others.

The
investigation revealed that the accused allegedly "duped" innocent
buyers by promising them to deliver flats, plots, commercial spaces, etc. However, they neither delivered the projects nor returned their money.
 The directors of the company in connivance with others "siphoned
off" money collected from buyers and did not use for the intended purpose.

According to the ED, they sent this money outside India in the form of
share buybacks, redemptions, FCDs, and loans and advances to associated
entities/persons, as well as giving excessive incentives and advances to key
managerial personnel to "fudge" the books of account, who then
invested it in purchasing immovable properties and shares of various companies
both within and outside the country. In this case, the agency arrested Goyal in
November of last year and later filed a charge sheet before a special
Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Panchkula in January.