ED accuses Ratul Puri of spending over $4.5mn on lavish lifestyle

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has accused the nephew of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath - Ratul Puri - then Executive Director of Moser Baer India Ltd (MBIL) of "spending over $4.5 million" from a credit card issued from Dubai through alleged AgustaWestland deal middleman Rajiv Saxena on a "lavish lifestyle on holidays travelling in private jets and night clubs".

The financial probe agency filed the charge sheet against Puri in a Delhi court on Thursday.

Puri was arrested on August 18 this year in a money laundering case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) based on an FIR by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against MBIL and others.

The ED in its charge sheet alleged that Puri had "transferred" funds consisting of bank loans to various subsidiaries of MBIL across the world in the guise of giving loans and investments.

The probe agency said that Puri with the help of various hawala operators and professionals created "corporate structures" in various jurisdictions and invested in asset creation like buying a factory, movable assets and also for funding a lavish lifestyle for which a credit card was got issued from the Dubai based hawala operator Rajiv Saxena, who was deported to India in the AgustaWestland scam.

"The total amount spent on the credit card is $4.5 million which has been used for lavish stays on holidays travelling in private jets and night clubs," the ED alleged.

Saxena was deported to India in January this year from Dubai in connection with the probe into the Rs 3,600 crore VVIP AgustaWestland chopper case.

Earlier on Friday, the agency moved a Delhi court seeking cancellation of approver status granted to Saxena in the money laundering case related to the Rs 3,600 crore chopper deal.

The ED also alleged that loans to the tune of Rs 7,979.30 crore taken from various banks were misused and misappropriated by MBIL and its directors and promoters for their own use and have further been transferred to the companies of Hindustan Power Group of Puri.

The agency alleged that in order to avail the loan and for corporate debt restructuring, a fabricated document was submitted to the bank showing infusion of Promoters' contribution which itself had come from suspicious sources.

"Corporate guarantees were given to lure the banks to disburse loans to subsidiaries beyond the net worth of the company MBIL over a period of time, the receivables were written off and investments were shown to be diminished and written off. No efforts were made to recover the amounts. Most of the subsidiaries have an outstanding financial liability towards the banks totalling to Rs 7,979.30 crore," the ED said.

The ED had earlier said that during the probe it was revealed that Moser Baer had bought Blue Ray discs from Pacific International FZE, a company of Saxena, which purchased the same from Singulus Technologies, Germany.

The total quantum of purchase was approximately $3.3 million and price differential per unit was "double" the amount, it said, adding: "Investigation has revealed that Puri was the beneficiary of the said tainted money, generated by diverting bank funds through over-invoicing."

( With inputs from IANS )