ED attaches ₹121.8 crore assets in Neomax Properties money laundering case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached movable and immovable properties in various places across Tamil Nadu valued at Rs 121.80 crore in the case of Neomax Properties Private Ltd and its group companies.

These properties were attached on April 9 under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, in the case against Neomax Properties Private Ltd and its group companies--Garlando Properties Private Ltd., Transco Properties Private Ltd., Tridas Properties Private Ltd., Glowmax Properties Private Ltd and its directors and shareholders, namely Kamalakannan, Balasubramanian, Veerasakthi, Charles and others.

ED's Chennai zonal office is attached to movable and immovable properties in various locations across Tamil Nadu. The market value of the attached properties is around Rs 600 crore.

This attachment follows the Provisional Attachment of properties valued at Rs 117 crore on December 15, 2023, by the ED, which has been confirmed by the PMLA Adjudicating Authority. The market value of those properties was confirmed to be Rs 207 crore.

ED initiated an investigation on the basis of the FIR registered by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW), Madurai, against Neomax Properties Pvt Ltd and its Group companies, which allegedly cheated several investors into depositing lakhs of money in various projects (Real estate plot development) by promising high returns of up to 12 per cent to 30 per cent interest, ultimately cheating them by not giving the promised returns and plots.

ED investigation revealed that Neomax Properties Private Ltd and other group companies under the ambit of "Neomax Group" collected huge funds majorly in the form of cash, from thousands of the investors and diverted these funds to shell entities, group companies indulged into hotels and resorts, multi-speciality hospitals, pharma distribution, construction, retail business, departmental store, renewable energy, information technology, automatic vending machine sales, battery refurbishment, e-commerce, logistics, furniture manufacturing and sales, aerospace services - helicopter and charter flight hiring services, education, wellness garments and casual wear sales, restaurants, fashion jewellery and other entities (outside the group).

Neomax Group owes approximately Rs 8,000 crore, including the promised returns to depositors and investors, according to the ED's statement. "The group has cheated the investors by alluring them with high returns and diverted the funds collected into the entities dealing in other businesses. Furthermore, they avoided repayment and instead forced and allured the depositors to redeposit their maturity amount.