ED searches Cox & Kings promoter offices, residences in YES Bank case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) searched on Monday five places linked to Cox & Kings (CKL) in connection with the tour operator’s financial dealings with Rana Kapoor, the co-founder of private lender YES Bank under arrest in Mumbai for alleged money laundering.
 

An ED official said the government agency is searching the offices and the residences of the travel firm’s promoter of and other executives. The action is part of ED’s probe in a case involving half a dozen YES Bank borrowers with total loan claims of about Rs 30,000 crore. The travel firm borrowed Rs 2,285 crore from the private lender. 

Sources said the ED is investigating how the bank sanctioned the loans and whether the travel firm’s promoters siphoned off the money. It is also examining illegal quid pro quo and suspected kickbacks in credit extended during Kapoor’s tenure at the bank.

Sources indicated that investigation will reach out to all borrowers who were summoned by the agency but their questioning was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The agency is preparing a second or supplementary chargesheet that will include its findings about the bank's borrowers.

ED had in mid-March summoned for questioning the promoters of leading corporates who have borrowed from YES Bank. They include Anil Ambani, Subhash Chandra, Naresh Goyal, Gautam Thapar, Sameer Gehlaut and Peter Kerkar, apart from DHFL's Wadhawan brothers Kapil and Dheeraj.

ED is reportedly in possession of the audit report alleging that Cox & Kings indulged in falsification of its financial statements between 2014 and 2019 by overstating its sales figures and understating its debt. It has also highlighted several “fictitious” transactions of the firms.

Kapoor, a former managing director, was arrested on March 8 days after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) took control of YES Bank.