Nirav Modi invested Rs 327 crore of PNB money in US firm he bought in 2010

Fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi invested Rs 327 crore of the Punjab National Bank fraud in US jewellery company Bailey Banks & Biddle that he bought in 2010, mentioned the supplementary charge sheet filed by Enforcement Directorate (ED). ED officials further mentioned that Nirav Modi purchased the company through a shell company and made his brother Nehal Modi one of the directors of the jewellery retailer.

The agency further added that all instructions related to the running of the company were given by Nirav Modi. The ED also submitted related details to the court as well as statement of an expert who helped Modi in the purchase. An email communication on transfer of funds between Modi and his aides from a secret server was also attached by the ED as part of the charge sheet.

Officials said that are yet to trace the money source that Modi used to purchase Bailey Banks & Biddle but found the investment of Rs 327 crore into it. The investment was made through a series of transactions, as mentioned in a report in Times of India. The report mentions that ED officials looked into bank statements of several shell companies in Barbados, Dubai and Hong Kong to trace the funds.

The ED also mentioned that the total attachment and seizure of movable and immovable properties in this case is around Rs 2,362 crore.

The firm, Bailey Banks & Bittle was founded in 1832 by Joseph Trowbridge Bailey and Andrew Kitchen in Philadelphia. It was initially called Bailey & Kitchen. It changed its name to Bailey Banks & Biddle in 1878. "The founding date makes us the oldest nation-wide jeweller in America," its website says.  

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