ED arrests Chennai businessman, attaches Rs 1.75 crore assets

The Enforcement Directorate on Monday said it has attached property worth Rs 1.75 crore of a Chennai-based firm and arrested its director who is accused of cheating the state-run Indian Bank and laundering money.

The agency's move comes following an FIR by Chennai police against K. Liakath Ali, the owner of Galaxy Impex, on a complaint of the Indian Bank about cheating and use of forged documents by certain importers.

Ali has been remanded in judicial custody, an ED official said.

"It is a case of money laundering through shell companies by traders engaged in import of electronic goods. The accused remitted large sums of foreign exchange out of India by cheating a Chennai-based Indian Bank branch. In this case, forged bills of entry were used as actual documents generated through electronic data interface of the Indian Customs," the official said.

Using these forged documents, an outward foreign exchange remittance of over Rs 18.66 crore was made from the bank accounts held in the names of shell entities without effecting any physical imports, the official said.

The ED took up investigations under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and identified Ali as the mastermind.

He was operating a firm by the name of Galaxy Impex and had opened fictitious accounts with various banks.

--IANS

rak/tsb/vt