Chennai, Dec 10 The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday said it has arrested four officials of Disc Assets Lead India Ltd, and Dal Marketing Services for laundering of over Rs 1,100 crore mobilised under a collective investment scheme.
In a statement issued here, the ED said it had arrested the company's CMD N.M. Umashankar, Director N. Arunkumar, MD V. Janarthanan, and Dal Marketing Solutions Director Saravanakumar.
A local court had sent them to judicial custody for 14 days.
The ED initiated investigation under Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 against Disc Assets Lead India and others based on FIR registered by the Tamil Nadu Police's Economic Offences Wing, under sections of the IPC dealing with cheating and conspiracy on the basis of a complaint received from public.
Disc Assets Lead India collected money under various schemes, stating that the customers would pay a fixed amount every month for a fixed period by the end of which they were promised land.
But the company defaulted and no lands were allotted.
Markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) had initiated inquiries against Disc Assets Lead India and said it was doing business of collective investment scheme without permission.
Then, Disc Assets Lead India, to circumvent SEBI provisions, started collecting money from the customers through another company, Dal Marketing Solutions.
The amount declared to be collected by the company from the customers was Rs 1,137 crore.
But lots of inconsistencies were found between the data submitted by the Directors and the data from the banks, the ED said.
Investigations under the PMLA revealed that the amounts collected have been diverted in the form of investment in various subsidiaries, royalty, donations, land advance, commission etc. to many entities in which their immediate family members/close relatives/employees of the company were the key managerial personnel.
( With inputs from IANS )
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