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The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) attached immovable properties worth about Rs 34.11 crore in the form of four land parcels, one residential land and one residential flat located in Coimbatore and Chennai, under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, said ED officials on Thursday.
The properties were attached in connection with a bank fraud case involving a Coimbatore-based firm, Lavanya Jewels (later converted to the company, Lavanya Gold Jewels India Pvt Ltd). ED initiated an investigation based on an FIR registered by the CBI, BS&FC, Bengaluru, against the directors of Lavanya Gold Jewels India Pvt. Ltd. about a wrongful loss of Rs. 65.00 crore to the State Bank of India. ED investigation revealed that Lavanya Jewels had obtained Cash Credit facilities from the bank based on inflated figures of its Stock-in-hand, debtors, etc. The credit facilities from the bank were admittedly misused in repayment to private financers, from whom cash loans were borrowed at exorbitant interest rates of 60% to 100% per annum. The ED investigation also revealed that the directors of the above-said company illegally took out gold bars and gold jewellery from the company for personal use. Further, they converted the said gold inventory into Bitcoins outside India and gradually laundered the undisclosed and unaccounted proceeds of crime in the form of crypto accounts They showed income from crypto transactions in a related partnership firm. The same income was later used by the directors of the company to acquire one flat worth Rs. 1.70 crore in Chennai. ED Investigation also unearthed that one of the properties mortgaged by Lavanya Jewels with the bank was fraudulently taken in e-auction by a real estate entity at a much lower value of around Rs. 6.5 crore (had a market value of more than Rs. 20 crore) in the benami name of the employee of the real estate entity, which constitutes proceeds of crime resulting in the loss to the bank. (ANI)
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