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REVEALED! How Nirav Modi transferred fraudulent funds

March 13, 2019 16:01 IST

ED team managed to get several bank statements from Barbados, Dubai, Hong Kong etc. which prove vital overseas link and money trail relating to Nirav Modi and his aides.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has recovered bank token devices of the foreign dummy companies used by the fugitive diamond trader to transfer the fraudulent funds.

The probe agency has found that Nehal Modi, brother of Nirav Modi has purportedly destroyed these devices and even secure server located at United Arab Emirates (UAE) soon after the  scam broke out.

 

These dummy firms have been receiving the fraudulent letters of undertakings (LoU) of Punjab National Bank (PNB) based out in British Virgin Island and other tax havens.

The enforcement agency has so far seized movable and immovable properties to the tune of Rs 2362 crore in the PNB fraud case.

Explaining the whole modus operandi, ED in its 122-page supplementary complaint said that Nirav Modi purchased an immovable property in US for $25 million in 2017.

This property was purchased in the name of “The Ithaca Trust” which was settled by his sister Purvi Modi, and the beneficiaries of this trust were the children of Nirav Modi.

The funds for purchasing this property was transferred from the fiduciary account of US-based the Commonwealth Trust Company.

This fiduciary account in turn received funds from the accounts of Purvi Modi maintained in Bank of Singapore.

The said amount gets credited from the accounts of Nirav Modi;s wife Ami Nirav Modi in her HSBC bank account in USA.

Most of the funds of Ami Nirav Modi were credited from the account of Purvi Modi maintained in AmiCorp Bank & Trust, Barbados.

This AmiCorp account got most of the funds from the accounts of Fine Classic FZE, a Dubai based dummy company of Purvi Modi i.e. from the fraudulent LOUs. obtained illegally from PNB.

ED team managed to get several bank statements from Barbados, Dubai, Hong Kong etc. which prove vital overseas link and money trail relating to Nirav Modi and his aides.

ED has gathered vital evidence against Nirav Modi which discloses owning another chain of jewellery naming Bailey Bank & Biddle in USA.

Diversion of fraudulent LOUs to the tune of at least USD 47 Million to this company has also been formed during investigations.

Further, a consultant from Dubai was holding the shares of two BVI companies namely Madison Capital Private limited & Moore Private Investments Limited on behalf of Purvi Modi and Neeshal Modi up to 2012.

In the second layer 10 BVI companies were formed by the same consulting firm and in third layer, 8 onshore companies were incorporated in Dubai by the said firm as per instructions of Nirav Modi.

These third layer companies were recipient of fraudulent LOUs from Punjab National Bank.

"ED investigations tracked the officials of this consulting firm in Dubai and statements of these officials were recorded under PMLA.

"Several incriminating documents have been obtained from the Dubai consulting firm showing role of the accused persons in this case," it said in the chargesheet.

ED also highlighted that how Modi planned to rotate the Bank’s LoU funds and reinvest the same into Firestar India by showing it as FDI investment through two companies namely - Alecust Global Holding and Progress Investment at Mauritius and Cyprus respectively.

These companies were supposed to' invest' $30 Million and $20 Million respectively.

These two companies were supposed to receive funds from Lambasa Global opportunity Fund BV and Universal ventures fund SCC respectively.

In turn these entities were supposed to received funds from two BVI companies namely Palmate Investments limited and Pristyn holdings which were owned by Purvi Modi.

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Shrimi Choudhury
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