Odisha ponzi case: ED attaches Rs 157cr assets of Seashore

Enforcement Directorate (ED) today attached assets, including 200kgs of silver coins, worth Rs 157 crore in connection with its money laundering probe against Odisha-based Seashore group of companies in an alleged multi-crore chitfund scam case.
ED's zonal office here issued the orders under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as it attached about 13 plush flats in various parts of the state, vast tracts of land in Angul, Bhadrak, Mayurbhanj and other places, a corporate office valued at Rs 30 crore in Bhubaneswar, two factories in Mayurbhanj, 200kgs of silver coins, 1.4kgs of gold coins and other immovable assets in the state.

The company is one of the prominent business groups among a clutch of 44 ponzi companies operating in the state which are under the scanner of CBI and ED after an order of the Supreme Court in this regard.
ED, according to records accessed by PTI, has accused the firm of running a ponzi scheme and perpetrating an estimated Rs 800 crore fraud duping numerous investors belonging to the state and a few others from West Bengal and Assam.
The agency had registered an FIR in this case last year after taking cognisance of complaints filed by Odisha police and the vigilance department.

The probe, under PMLA, found that the group has been running the alleged chitfund scheme by running cooperative societies and taking money from investors as it promised them "unrealistic" returns on investments.
ED, official sources said, found these cooperative societies floated by the group to have allegedly fudged KYC, accounting and registration norms in order to perpetrate the scam.