Sebi moves Australian court for attachment of PACL properties

The market has alleged the company of siphoned off money from investors to buy Sheraton Mirage Resort (Sheraton) on the Gold Coast

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has filed a petition in the Federal Court of Australia to restrain PACL Ltd from disposing off its assets in that country.

Sebi’s petition alleges PACL siphoned off money from investors to buy Sheraton Mirage Resort on the east coast of that country, in Queensland.

It has presented documents on group properties there and the related ‘money trail’, said a source.

The move comes after PACL investors had filed a class action suit with Australian authorities and sought restitution of assets sold by the group for $140 million. Acting in the interest and protection of the investors, the court had secured $92 mn in July.

PACL group companies face a central Bureau of Investigation probe for failure to refund Rs 49,000 crore to those who’d invested in the company’s collective investment scheme, one that was deemed illegal by Sebi.

It has learnt that Nirmal Singh Bhangoo, founder of PACL, had bought Sheraton Mirage in Queensland's Gold Coast in 2009. Bhangoo and his kin, with two Australians, had operated a company named Resort Corp, into the development of large tracts of coastal land in northern New South Wales.

The Supreme Court in India had recently barred Pearls Agro, part of the group), its directors and officials from disposing off any property in India or abroad. In February, the apex court had appointed a panel chaired by former chief justice R M Lodha for selling of assets and to refund 45,000 investors who had invested in the ponzi scheme.

Sebi had last year imposed its highest ever penalty of Rs 7,269.5 crore on the company and its four directors, for illegal and fraudulent mobilisation of funds from the public.