NSEL: ED attaches Rs 201 cr shares in Delhi luxury hotel

The ED today attached shares worth Rs 201 crore invested in a luxury hotel here in connection with its money laundering probe in the NSEL case.
The central probe agency said it has "provisionally attached" Hotel Radisson Blue in the Paschim Vihar area "to the extent of Rs 201.50 crore" under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
In a statement, it also said that "Jag Mohan Garg of Ms Mohan India Private Limited holds 50 per cent share in the said property through its group company Ms Tirupati Infra Projects Private Limited."
Mohan India Private Limited is an alleged defaulter in the National Spot Exchange Limited (NSEL) case with a total stated liability of Rs 922 crore.

With this instance, the total attachment of assets made by the ED in this case has gone up to Rs 2,706 crore.
During investigations, it said, it was "revealed that Ms Mohan India Pvt Limited has fraudulently obtained huge funds from NSEL by trading on the exchange platform against non- existent/fictitious sale of their commodity, ie, sugar.

"The money trail has revealed that a huge chunk of proceeds of crime has been transferred to Ms Tirupati Infra Projects Pvt Ltd for settling its liabilities and investment in the said company," it said.
The ED, along with the Economic Offences Wing of the Mumbai Police, had registered a criminal case under the PMLA in 2013 to probe the NSEL and others associated with it.

The agency alleged that the accused persons in the said case hatched a criminal conspiracy to defraud the investors, induced them to trade on the platform of NSEL, created forged documents like bogus warehouse receipts, falsified the accounts and thereby committed criminal breach of trust against about 13,000 investors to the tune of Rs 5,600 crore.
It had in March 2015 also filed a 20,000-page charge sheet against the NSEL and 67 others in a court here alleging the NSEL funds were laundered and "illegally ploughed into purchase of private properties."
NSEL's payment troubles started after it was ordered by regulator the Forward Markets Commission (FMC) in July 2013 to suspend spot trade in most of its contracts due to suspected trading violations.

The exchange could not settle the outstanding trades, leading to investigations by the police and regulators to find out whether the exchange had defrauded traders by not enforcing rules requiring sufficient collateral to be set aside.