The Enforcement Directorate is conducting searches at more than 35 locations allegedly linked to Amtek Group in connection with a ₹20,000-crore bank fraud case.
The raids are being carried out in Delhi, Gurugram, Noida, Mumbai, Nagpur, and other places “on Amtek Group led by Arvind Dham, Gautam Malhotra, and others”.
Also read: ED arrests five in ₹56,000-crore bank fraud case against Bhushan Steel
The alleged fraud was done in a number of listed companies which were finally taken over at nominal prices in National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) proceedings, leaving the consortium of lending banks with nominal recovery.
“This led to losses to the exchequer of approximately ₹10,000 crore to ₹15,000 crore,” according to the agency.
The ED probe was launched on the basis of a First Information Report registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation CBI FIR involving one group entity, ACIL Limited, and as per the Supreme Court directions to investigate the fraud.
The agency alleges that loan funds were siphoned off to invest in the real-estate and new ventures, and also for making foreign investments. Fictitious sales, capital assets, debtors and profit were shown in the group concerns to get more loans so that the account did not turn into a non-performing asset.
It is also alleged that the listed companies shares were rigged. Assets worth thousands of crores have been parked in the names of shell companies, several foreign assets created, and the funds are still parked under the new names, as per the ED’s purported findings.
