The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has seized its biggest-ever cryptocurrency worth Rs 1,646 crore in a money laundering investigation into a fraud investment scheme called BitConnect. The scheme, which ran between 2016 and 2018, promised investors high returns through a proprietary trading bot but was found to be a sham. The ED tracked transactions through the dark web and seized the cryptocurrency from numerous wallets. This is the agency's largest-ever seizure of virtual digital assets and the investigation is ongoing.
In what is being described as the 'biggest ever seizure of cash' by an enforcement agency, unaccounted cash -- one report said more than Rs 177 crore (Rs 1.77 billion), another said Rs 257 crores (Rs 2.57 billion), a third said Rs 194.45 crores (Rs 1.94 billion) -- was unearthed from perfume trader Piyush Jain's home in Kanpur.
The operations revealed evidence of price and volume manipulation of stocks through the use of platforms like YouTube and WhatsApp.
In a significant order, the Supreme Court has restrained the Enforcement Directorate from accessing and copying content from electronic devices seized during searches against Santiago Martin, also known as the 'lottery king', his relatives, and employees.
The poll-panel called these seizures by its various field and technical enforcement teams a "historic milestone" achieved "for the first time in any assembly electoral process", meaning during simultaneously-held assembly polls.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Thursday debarred Ketan Parekh, the stock market operator involved in the stock market scam of 2000, Singapore-based trader Rohit Salgaocar, and one other individual from the securities market for alleged front-running of trades of a United States (US)-based foreign portfolio investor (FPI). The FPI manages around $2.5 trillion worth of funds globally.
The cumulative seizure of such illegal inducements in the five poll-going states -- Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Goa and Punjab -- stood at Rs 1,039.50 crore, the sources said, adding that it included drugs worth Rs 571.34 crore.
The commission said enforcement authorities have seized Rs 4,650 crore even before polling begins for the Lok Sabha elections and it is the "higher than total seizures" made in the 2019 polls
Seizures in poll-bound states see sharp rise since implementation of Model Code of Conduct.
Last November, ED conducted searches under the provisions of the PMLA at nine locations in Telangana.
With the Income Tax department recovering over Rs 225 crore cash during a series of raids on an Odisha-based distillery group on charges of tax evasion, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday assured the people that the money looted from the public will be returned.
Over Rs 313 crore in cash has been seized by Election Commission since the announcement of the 16th general elections with Andhra Pradesh topping the list in cash and liquor interceptions during this period.
The finance ministry on Monday said the recent raid on perfume trader Peeyush Jain's house in Kanpur, from where more than Rs 177 cr unaccounted cash was unearthed, was the "biggest ever seizure of cash" by an enforcement agency. The December 26 raid, which resulted in Jain's arrest, included searches at Jain's residential/factory premises in Kannauj, where about Rs 17 crore in cash have been recovered, the ministry said in a release. Further searches are underway at Jain's residential/factory premises in Kannauj.
Devas Multimedia has seized $87,457.47 cash that ISRO's commercial arm Antrix Corporation held in the US as it looked to enforce a $1.2 billion compensation it had won over a cancelled satellite deal, its lawyer said on Wednesday. Devas Multimedia America Inc had sought seizure of $145,000 but the actual recovery was $87,457.47 (a little less than Rs 70 lakh). This came after it secured a favourable order from the Eastern District Court of Virginia, Matthew D McGrill said.
A court in Canada has ordered the seizure of amounts collected by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) on behalf of Air India and the Airports Authority of India (AAI). Separate orders were passed on November 24 and December 21 on pleas by shareholders of Devas Multimedia Private Limited who have filed multiple petitions to enforce arbitration awards against the Indian government. According to a Devas spokesperson, more than $30 million has been seized to date under the IATA action.
"I have been in this business (banking) for two decades. While doing business nothing wrong has been done. However, irregularities may happen. If irregularities have happened, there is punishment for it. I am ready to face punishment," state Cooperatives Minister Subhash Deshmukh said.
'She could have sat down with the students and taken a list of their grievances including their allegations and suspicions.' 'Not all suspicions are true, but you have to listen, you have to let the steam come out.'
The premises are alleged to be of the domestic help of Jharkhand Rural Development Minister Alamgir Alam's personal secretary Sanjiv Lal.
'When you weigh anti-incumbency against the Centre against anti-incumbency against the state, anti-incumbency against the Centre will triumph as this is a parliamentary election.'
As the raids were completed, the I-T team took two managers of the distillery located at Sutapada to an unknown location for interrogation, they said.
Tamil Nadu topped the tally of total seizure of cash where a latest Election Commission data said the figure went up to Rs 112.89 crore.
The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday questioned former Indian cricket team captain and Congress leader Mohammed Azharuddin for over nine hours in a money laundering case linked to alleged financial irregularities in the Hyderabad Cricket Association, official sources said.
The request is under "active consideration" of the Union home ministry, he said.
The searches since December 22, which resulted in Jain's arrest, also included searches at the trader's residential/factory premises in Kannauj, wherein about Rs 17 crore in cash, 23 kg of gold and 600 kg sandalwood oil having a market value of about Rs 6 crore have been recovered, the ministry said in a release.
Voters from the Gudivada assembly constituency refuse to cast their ballot, protest outside offices of political parties. Vicky Nanjappa reports
'With the Election Commission wisening up to the practice, which strikes at the very root of electoral democracy, the practitioners of cash for votes have been getting more and more ingenious,' points out Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
Former MLA Ram Dayal Uikey, the BJP nominee from Pali-Tanakhar seat in Korba district, was present in the vehicle when the cash was seized from there, the police official said.
Over Rs 16 crore in cash has been seized till now by EC-appointed surveillance teams and check squads in five poll-bound states, with Rajasthan topping the chart with the recovery of Rs 7.13 crore.
The Election Commission has done good work in recent years but sometimes it takes decisions in over-anxiety, the Supreme Court on Friday said while referring to poll watchdog's order on cash seizure above Rs 2.5 lakh in transit ahead of Gujarat assembly elections.
The Samajwadi Party (SP) said through a post on its official Twitter handle that the premises of its MLC Pushpraj alias Pampi Jain in Kannauj, Uttar Pradesh, have been raided.
The proposed measures aim to bring stricter norms to curb holding of illegal cash and mismanagement of unaccounted cash seized by the probe agencies during investigations.
The 39-year-old was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate from Ranchi after the agency conducted multi-city raids against him, Singhal, her businessman husband Abhishek Jha and others, on May 6.
T K S Elangovan has alleged senior bank officials forged documents and faked authorisation from the RBI, to transport huge sums of hawala money during recent elections in the state.
The Election Commission on Monday agreed before the Supreme Court to amend its blanket order for seizing cash amount above Rs 2.5 lakh in transit during the Gujarat assembly elections.
During a review, the EC found that the performance of some officers was "unsatisfactory" and they were found "complacent, if not complicit" in various matters, including the illegal supply of liquor as a possible poll inducement, sources said.
The Association for Democratic Reforms, an non-government organisation working for electoral reforms, while supporting Election Commission's order to seize unaccounted cash in poll-bound states, has noted that legitimate business transactions based on cash should not suffer.
Polling in Vellore was scheduled on April 18.
The drug network was busted based on an intelligence input received by the Crime Branch, he said, adding that three persons were arrested and a case has been registered by the DRI.
The raids were carried out in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and the Union Territory of Chandigarh by the NIA as part of a mega operation that began early Thursday morning, a spokesperson of the premier investigating agency said.
The same day the tax sleuths had raided the house of DMK MP S Jagathrakshakan and some of those linked to him. The MP from Arakkonam has interests in a variety of business sectors.
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