Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the Mumbai Zonal office of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached assets valued over Rs 36 crore in connection with a bank fraud case involving Rakesh and Sarang Wadhawan, the promoters of Housing Development Infrastructure Limited (HDIL), among others.
In 2019, the ED and Mumbai Police’s Economic Offence Wing filed a multi-crore money laundering investigation, leading to the arrest of the father-son.
Rakesh and Sarang Wadhawan were granted bail by the Bombay High Court on Friday in the Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank fraud case.
The Enforcement Directorate began its investigation based on a formal complaint (FIR) filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) Anti-Corruption Bureau, Mumbai; several sections of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, and the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 against Rakesh and Sarang Wadhawan, among others, for embezzling the Rs 200 crore loan that Yes Bank had approved for Mack Star.
Furthermore, a new FIR was filed based on a complaint made by Mack Star, alleging that the father-son team had fraudulently and illegally sold a number of office units in Mack Star’s Kaledonia building, causing the HDIL subsidiary to suffer an unjustifiable loss of over Rs 300 crore.
After complaint filed by the CBI’s Anti-Corruption Bureau, the Enforcement Directorate is also looking into the claim included in this FIR.
According to the ED investigation, Rakesh and Sarang Wadhawan fraudulently and illegally transferred one of Mack Star’s commercial properties, located in the Kaledonia building, to Vikram Homes Pvt. Ltd. without really paying the subsidiary firm.
By selling the assets illegally and without the approval of DE Shaw Group, the company’s largest shareholder with 83.36 percent stake, the Wadhawans defrauded Mack Star.
With the addition of the new assets, the ED has now attached properties totaling Rs. 281.02 crore, bringing its total attachment value to Rs. 244.36 crore.
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