NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has searched 16 premises in Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi, which include office and residential premises of Securekloud Tech Ltd, Pro Fin Capital Services Ltd, Quantum Global Securities Ltd, Unity Global Financial Services Pvt Ltd, Desert River Capital Pvt. Ltd. in a money laundering case.
Investigations led to a seizure ₹1. 04 crores in cash, gold and diamond jewellery, property identification worth more than ₹30 crore and assets in various DEMAT accounts and incriminating documents and digital evidence.
The ED has initiated a money laundering investigation under FIR 39/2019 registered by the Crime Control Bureau (CCB)-I on February 2, 2019, on a complaint filed by Suresh Venkatachari, promoter and CEO of Securekloud Technologies Limited ( STL), vs. QGSL and its Directors and Rohit Arora.
According to the investigating agency, since the FIR covered the predicate offense u/s 420, 471 and 120B of the IPC, a case was registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Securekloud Technologies Limited (STL), formerly known as 8k Miles Software Services Ltd, is an IT software and services company with presence in India and USA. The complaint was filed against certain shareholders and financial services companies that sold shares pledged by promoter STL to take a loan against the company’s shares, the agency said in a statement. The complaint also alleged that the stock brokers who made the loan forged signatures on delivery notes and sold shares off-market.
“The PMLA investigation revealed that the directors and beneficial owners of these stock broking and financial services companies transferred shares worth ₹160 crore off the market and then sold it to generate huge proceeds of crime,” the ED alleged.
The investigation also reportedly revealed that “the complaint filed by STL’s promoter was misleading as he and his CFO were involved in a larger conspiracy to defraud the general public by inflating the company’s books, diverting company funds to unrelated business activities of companies that has the share of CFO and CEO of STL.”
The agency also emphasized that some unscrupulous stock traders, with the tacit support and consent of the STL management, are carrying out suspicious activity for the manipulation of share prices. The ED is probing the issue as well as a larger conspiracy of promoters of listed companies and stock broking companies who provided loans and allegedly sold shares in the company to launder money.
Follow all business news, market news, important events and latest news on Live Mint. Download The Mint News app and get daily market updates.
More less