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The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday said that it has attached movable and immovable properties to the tune of Rs 30.14 crore of Unickon Securities Pvt Ltd (USPL), its directors and group companies, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), in connection with its probe into the money laundering case, an ED official said.
The ED case is based on the charge sheet filed by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) against the USPL, Unickon Fincap Pvt. Ltd. (UFPL) and other related persons. The USPL and UFPL were providing share trading or broking service to various customers. The official said that the money laundering investigation revealed that USPL, in connivance with the UFPL and others, cheated and defrauded its clients who used its shares trading platform. "These companies unauthorisedly pledged the securities of the clients with various third party financers and thus raised funds and illegally diverted and utilised the funds in their group concerns," he said, adding that this practice was in contravention of the provisions of several sections of the SEBI Act and various regulations issued under Prohibition of Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practices relating to Securities Market Regulations. The official also said that the USPL had not segregated its business bank account from that of the clients accounts held with it. "The clients' funds were unauthorisedly appropriated, transferred and utilised from the designated client accounts to the business account of the USPL and from these business accounts funds were transferred to the account of group companies including its real estate arm, Unickon Real Estate Pvt. Ltd," he said. The official pointed out that the USPL in connivance with others, mis-utilised their clients' funds for funding the business activities of its sister concerns in the form of Inter-Corporate Deposits (ICDs) and loans and advances. The official added that total proceeds of crime in the case is Rs 88.84 crore out of which Rs 30.14 crore have been attached. --IANS aks/rt ( 341 Words) 2021-04-06-21:24:11 (IANS)
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