Money laundering case: ED attaches assets of Mumbai-based recruitment firm

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached assets worth over Rs 7.5 crore of a Mumbai-based global recruitment firm and its promoters in a money laundering case linked to the alleged cheating of 900 Kuwait-bound nurses, officials said on Tuesday.

In a press release, the central agency said it has provisionally attached properties of PJ Mathew, Celine Mathew and Thomas Mathew worth Rs.7.51 crore in connection with a money-laundering probe.

PJ Mathew, owner of Mathew International and others had hired over 900 nurses to be employed in Kuwait by charging them high fees, it added.

"It is revealed that PJ Mathew with the help of others recruited more than 900 nurses who were to be employed in Kuwait by charging exorbitant service charge ranging from Rs 18.5 lakh to Rs 20 lakh from each applicant. The investigation revealed that Mathew International illegally collected Rs 205.71 crore," it stated.

The ED had found that money collected from illegal nursing recruitment was sent abroad via hawala channels through an agency named Ideal Forex owned by Mohammad Aslam at Penta Menaka shopping complex in Kochi. In a raid conducted in 2018, the ED seized Rs 24.9 lakh worth currencies of 19 countries and Rs 6.42 lakh worth Indian currency.

The attached properties include a duplex apartment in Kadavanthara in Kochi, a plot of land in Mumbai, another two cents of land in Ambalapuzha in Alappuzha, a luxury car and Rs 4.55 crore, which were seized by the Income Tax Department in a raid held at Mathew International entities in 2015.