ABG Shipyard fraud: ED attaches assets worth Rs 2,747 crore in money laundering probe
The investigation is based on a case filed by the CBI pertaining to allegations that the shipping company defrauded several banks of Rs 22,842 crore.
The Enforcement Directorate said on Thursday that it has attached assets worth more than Rs 2,747 crore in its money laundering investigation into an alleged bank loan fraud by ABG Shipyard Limited, its group companies and linked entities.
The ABG Shipyard case involves an alleged fraud of Rs 22,842 crore. The Central Bureau of Investigation is looking into the allegations of the fraud itself, while the Enforcement Directorate is investigating charges of money laundering linked to the case.
The assets attached by the Enforcement Directorate include shipyards located at the cities of Surat and Dahej in Gujarat, plots of agricultural land, various commercial and residential premises in Gujarat and Maharashtra and bank accounts owned by ABG Shipyard Limited and its affiliate entities, the central agency said.
The Enforcement Directorate alleged that the shipping company misused the loans it took from various banks by diverting them for “purposes other than its actual cause in the garb of various loans/advances/investments etc” to its various entities in India and abroad.
The assets were attached a day after the Central Bureau of Investigation arrested Rishi Kamlesh Agarwal, the founder of the shipping company.
Agarwal was taken into custody after being called for questioning at the CBI headquarters in Delhi, PTI reported. He did not cooperate in the investigation and gave evasive responses, CBI officials alleged.
The shipping company, which has constructed more than 160 vessels, owes private bank ICICI Rs 7,089 crore, IDBI Bank Rs 3,634 crore, the State Bank of India Rs 2,925 crore and Bank of Baroda Rs 1,614, the CBI had alleged in the first information report it filed in February.
The FIR was registered based on a complaint filed by the State Bank of India in November 2019. Besides Agarwal, the company’s former executive director Santhanam Muthaswamy and directors Ashwini Kumar, Sushil Kumar Agarwal and Ravi Vimal Nevetia have also been named in the FIR.
The CBI has booked the accused persons under sections of the Indian Penal Code pertaining to cheating, criminal breach of trust and abuse of official position, as well as under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
