ED seizes gold bars in Mumbai & Delhi in Rs 137 crore embezzlement case

Mumbai, Dec 12 (IANS) The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) seized gold bars worth Rs 3.4 crore and Rs 46 lakh during searches at 19 locations in Mumbai, Delhi and Gurgaon as part of an ongoing probe in Summaya-Dentsu case involving embezzlement of Rs 137 crore, an official said on Thursday.

During the course of search operations by the Mumbai Zonal Office on Tuesday, movable assets including Rs 46 Lakh, foreign currency equivalent to Rs 4 Lakh and gold bars amounting to Rs 3.4 crore have been seized.

Other incriminating documents related to immovable property transactions, and digital devices have been found and seized during the search proceedings, the official said.

ED initiated an investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 on the basis of an FIR registered by Worli Police Station against Dentsu Communications India Private Limited, Suumaya Industries Ltd and its promoters including others for allegedly embezzling Rs 137 crore under the guise of promising future ‘Need to Feed program’ advantages.

ED investigation so far has revealed that trade financing was secured from NBFCs under the pretext of the ‘Need to Feed’ program of the Government of Haryana to supply Agro products.

Accused persons have not received any contract from the government and there was no such program ever in existence either. Accused entities have in fact never supplied any Agro product materials for any such program. However, in order to create a false impression that they were supplying Agro products, the accused created fake records including fake lorry receipts and fake invoices.

The search operations have revealed that the listed entities of the Suumaya group entered into transactions worth Rs 5,000 Crore, wherein only 10 per cent of the transactions were genuine. These transactions were done in a circular pattern that led to an increase in the turnover of involved entities including Dentsu India.

Investors of the listed group entities of Suumaya group were misrepresented to show such artificially inflated transactions leading to huge spikes in share prices. The turnover of Suumaya Industries increased from Rs 210 Crore to Rs 6,700 crore in a span of two years from 2019-20 to 2021-22 which caused the share price to increase astronomically from Rs 19 per scrip to Rs 736 during this period.

Further, the circular transactions also led to an exponential increase in turnover of entities bidding for Government contracts, startups for valuation purposes and others.

Investigations have revealed that this was done in connivance with stock brokers and merchant bankers wherein amounts were paid in cash for commodities contracts on NCDEX and the acquisition of companies, which were later listed on the stock exchange.

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