The government has arrested one individual named Dortse having links with China and is responsible for the whole racket of incorporating a large number of shell companies in India and appointing dummy Directors on their Boards.
Dorte has "clearly emerged as the mastermind" of the whole racket, a Ministry of Corporate Affairs statement said on Sunday morning. The arrest, however, was made on Saturday.
"After the simultaneous search and seizure operations conducted by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs on 8th Sept. 2022, on the offices of Jillian Consultants India Private Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Jilian Hong Kong Ltd., at Gurgaon, Fininty Pvt Ltd at Bangalore and Husys Consulting Ltd, an erstwhile listed company at Hyderabad, the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) has arrested Mr Dortse yesterday," it added. Dortse and one Chinese national are the two directors of Jilian Consultants India Private Limited.
Based on inputs and the investigations carried out, it was gathered that Dortse had fled from Delhi NCR to a remote place in the state of Bihar and was attempting to escape India through the road route, the statement said.
"Immediately, a special team was constituted in SFIO which was deputed to the remote place. On the evening of 10th Sept. 2022, SFIO had arrested Dortse, who was later produced in the Jurisdictional Court and Orders for his transit remand were obtained."
The arrested person Dortse had shown himself to be a resident of Mandi in Himachal Pradesh as per the records filed with the Registrar of Companies, the ministry's statement said.
"Evidence procured during the enquiry by ROC Delhi and the simultaneous search operations clearly points to dummy Directors being paid by Jilian India Ltd. to act as dummies in several shell companies," the statement said, adding that boxes filled with company seals and digital signatures of dummy directors have been recovered from the site.
The Indian employees were in touch with their Chinese counterparts through a Chinese instant messaging app, it added.
"Husys Ltd. was also found to be acting on behalf of Jilian India Ltd. Initial observations reveal that Husys Ltd. had a pact with Jilian Hong Kong Ltd. Investigations so far have revealed the possible involvement of these shell companies in serious financial crimes detrimental to the financial security of the country," the Ministry added.
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs, under whose aegis Serious Fraud Investigation Office operates, had assigned the investigation of Jilian Consultants India Private Limited and 32 other companies to SFIO on Friday.
Earlier, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) Thursday initiated a crackdown on Indian entities that were providing "fake directors" to hundreds of Chinese shell companies in cities like Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Gurugram, sources had said.
They added that Indian citizens with no education and working in menial jobs were being provided as Directors to Chinese Shell companies.
( With inputs from ANI )
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