ED files prosecution complaint against Zoom Developers, promoter

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday said it has filed a prosecution complaint against Indore-based Zoom Developers and its promoter-cum-director Vijay Madanlal Choudhary in connection with a Rs 966-crore bank loan default case, an official said.

The agency filed the complaint under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 before an Indore court as part of its probe against Zoom Developers and Choudhary, after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered cases against the company and its promoter.

The CBI has already filed five charge-sheets against Choudhary, whom the ED had arrested in May from Mumbai. He is accused of causing losses to five public sector banks, including Punjab National Bank, Syndicate Bank, Canara Bank, United Bank of India and the Union Bank of India to the tune of Rs 966 crore.

According to the ED, the loss is not just limited to Rs 966 crore; Choudhary and Zoom Developers are also involved in loan defaults to the tune of Rs 2,650 crore, taken from 25 banks.

The ED probe has revealed that Choudhary had got two trusts, named Beverin Stifung Foundation and Windleaf Foundation, incorporated in Liechtenstein, of which he was the sole beneficiary. Subsequently, through these trusts, five companies were formed in the United Kingdom and Switzerland.

Zoom Developers allegedly claimed that they were "aggregators" and projected them to Indian bankers as independent entities, which had entered into contracts and sub-contracts with it for rendering engineering services and making procurements.

Based on the "so-called" contracts between Zoom Developers and the "aggregators", the company applied for issuance of bank guarantees and counter-guarantees to the foreign bankers of the "aggregators." On issuance of the bank guarantees, mobilisation amounts were released by the "aggregators" to Zoom Developers.

The funds were allegedly used by the company and its group concerns as investment in share capital for purchase of properties and other expenses. Further extension of the bank guarantees were also sought.

It is alleged that the paper contracts were not concluded and the loans were never repaid to the banks.

The ED alleges that Choudhary, in collusion with chartered accountant Sharad Kabra and other associates, siphoned off the funds, which were laundered through a large number of companies and used to acquire assets overseas.

Choudhary is accused of forming almost 485 companies in the names of himself, his family members and employees, and floating 15 companies in the United States, three in the United Kingdom, three in Switzerland, seven in Singapore, four in Germany, nine in the United Arab Emirates, two in China and two in Zimbabwe, apparently for the purpose of money laundering, an ED official said.

The ED has also arrested Kabra and filed a charge-sheet against him.

--IANS

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