NEW DELHI: In a massive action against the Managing Director of the IFFCO, the Enforcement Directorate on Friday said that it has attached the properties of US Awasthi worth Rs 20.96 crore in connection with a fertilizer scam money laundering case.
An ED official here said that the financial probe agency has attached the properties of Awasthi, valued at Rs 20.96 crore in its ongoing investigations against Directors of IFFCO and Indian Potash Limited (IPL) and others.
He said that the attached properties include residential houses in New Delhi (including the residential property located at Hauz Khas Enclave which he had got transferred to himself from IFFCO), Haryana’s Gurugram and Himachal Pradesh under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The ED had earlier attached movable assets (FDRs) valued at Rs 27.79 crore in the name of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) Rajya Sabha MP Amarendra Dhari Singh, USD 47,54,606 (approximately Rs 36.55 crore as per prevailing exchange rate) lying in the Swiss Bank Accounts of Atrium Holdings Limited and Artistic Holdings Limited (both beneficially owned by Pankaj Jain) and residential and commercial properties valued at Rs 54.11 lakh belonging to Jain in this case.
Thus, the total attachment, in this case, comes to about Rs 86 crore so far, he said.
The ED registered a case of money laundering on the basis of a case registered by the CBI on May 17, 2021, against various suspects including Awasthi, MD IFFCO, Jain, Promoter of Jyoti Trading Corporation and Rare Earth Group, Dubai, Singh and others for criminal conspiracy, cheating and criminal misconduct.
The ED official said that the money laundering probe revealed that Awasthi and others in IFFCO generated proceeds of crime and layered it through various unrelated entities and part of PoC was then transferred to the entities controlled by Awasthi and others.
The ED had also filed a chargesheet on July 30, last year against six accused and the court has taken cognizance of the offence.