Assets worth Rs 15,113 cr confiscated in corporate frauds: Govt

By Payal Mehta

New Delhi [India], April 3 : Enforcement Directorate (ED) confiscated assets worth over Rs 15,113 crore in corporate fraud cases, the government informed Lok Sabha on Monday.

In a written reply to Lok Sabha MP from Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) NK Premachandran, Union Finance Ministry on Monday gave the details of the actions taken by them in case of corporate financial frauds.

Union Minister of State for Finance, Pankaj Chaudhary said, "In major cases of corporate fraud viz Sterling Biotech, fraud committed by compes of Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, ED has attached properties worth Rs 33,862.20 crore. Out of which, assets worth Rs 15,113.02 crore have been confiscated and restituted to the Public Sector Banks. Further, the consortium of banks led by SBI has realized Rs 7,975.27 crore by sale of assets handed over to them by Directorate of Enforcement."

The Finance Ministry also highlighted that the number of persons arrested by ED in the last five years is 374, which includes a number of directors of corporates involved in money laundering. No separate data related to corporate fraud is being maintained because PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002) cases generally involve several other offences also.

To a question further asked by the lone RSP MP on whether the government proposes to prevent the money laundering by the corporates, the MoS Finance stated that the central government has enacted various laws such as FEMA (Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999), PMLA and FEOA (Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018) to prevent money laundering.

ED is mandated with the task of enforcement of provisions of these laws, the MoS, Finance said.