The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested Roop Bansal, the promoter of real estate firm M3M, in a case of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). This comes after the ED carried out search operations at seven locations in Delhi and Gurugram belonging to real estate developers IREO Group and M3M Group.
According to officials, the probe was carried out against the firms for allegedly diverting, siphoning off and misappropriating funds. The ED detected money laundering of over Rs 400 crore by IREO Group and M3M Group.
It may be noted that multiple FIRs have been registered against IREO Group, prompting ED investigation into the matter. The financial probe agency has also alleged that a huge amount of money running to hundreds of crores was siphoned off through the M3M group.
“The investigations done by ED showed that in one of the transactions, M3M group received about Rs 400 crore from IREO Group through several shell companies in multiple layers. The transaction was shown in the books of IREO as payments towards development rights,” the central agency said.
The ED added that a land was owned by the M3M group, and the market value of the land was around Rs 4 crore.
"M3M Group initially sold the development rights of the said land to five shell companies for a payment of Rs 10 crore. It was claimed that the five companies are unrelated companies. Investigations show that the five shell companies were operated by M3M Group."
Five shell companies thereafter allegedly sold the development rights of the same land to IREO Group for about Rs 400 crore.
After receiving the amount of Rs 400 crore from the IREO Group, the shell companies transferred the said amounts immediately to the M3M Group using multiple layers, the agency said.
"All the shell companies were owned and operated by M3M Group under the directions of its promoters Basant Bansal and Roop Kumar Bansal and his family members. In this way, IREO and M3M siphoned off about Rs 400 crore money belonging to investors/customers and the proceeds of crime remained with M3M Group which was used by M3M for other investments/ paying off liabilities," it said.
The ED alleged that the IREO Group did not make any efforts to develop the land and started to write off the investments every year.
After the searches, the agency seized 17 high-end luxury vehicles (Ferrari, Lamborghini, Land Rover, Rolls Royce, Bentley, Mercedes Maybach, etc.) having acquisition value of over Rs 60 crore, jewellery and bullion worth Rs 5.75 crore, cash of Rs 15 lakh along with various incriminating documents, digital evidence and books of accounts.
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