ED attaches over Rs 2,200 crore assets of Rana Kapoor, others in Yes Bank PMLA case

Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) Thursday provisionally attached assets worth Rs.2203 crores in a money laundering case of alleged fraud caused to Yes Bank Ltd (YBL).
The agency said while assets worth Rs.792 crore (present market value Rs 1400 Crore) owned by arrested YBL cofounder Rana Kapoor and entities related to him were provisionally attached, properties worth Rs.1411.90 crores of co-accused, Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd (DHFL) promoters, Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan were also provisionally attached by the federal agency.

As per section 5 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), any property of any person involved in money laundering may be provisionally attached. The Adjudicating Authority after considering representation shall record a finding whether properties are involved in money laundering or not.

According to the agency the present market value of these assets attached in the case (both in India and abroad) is more than Rs 2800 crores.

In the case of Kapoor, the provisionally attached properties include properties in Mumbai- an independent residential building “Khursidabad”, three duplex flats at Napean Sea Road, residential flat in NCPA, Nariman Point; eight flats in Indiabulls Blu. Besides the Mumbai properties, a bungalow at 40 Amrita Shergill Marg in New Delhi having market value of Rs 685 crore have also been attached, the agency said in a statement.

While in the case of the Wadhawans-12 flats in suburban Mumbai; a flat in New York and two flats in London. Additionally two land parcels in Pune and Mulshi; one commercial property in Australia; five luxury vehicles and 344 bank accounts have also been provisionally attached.

The Directorate had earlier attached bank deposits to the tune of Rs 115 crore of various companies of Kapoor and seized jewellery worth Rs 22.87 Crore and seven high end luxury cars worth Rs 12.58 crore belonging to the Wadhawan family have also been provisionally attached.

The Wadhawan brothers - Kapil and Dheeraj - and their non-banking financial company DHFL are the co-accused in a cheating and money laundering case registered against Kapoor. Kapoor was arrested in March by ED and the Wadhawan brothers were arrested in April from their Mahabaleshwar farmhouse by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). While the CBI is probing the alleged criminal conspiracy and fraud caused to the private lender, officials of the ED are probing them for alleged money laundering.

In its chargesheet, the CBI alleged ‘quid pro quo’ arrangement between the Wadhawans and the Kapoors. The agency told a local court that in lieu of a Rs 750 crore loan sanctioned by Yes Bank Ltd to one of the group companies of DHFL, the now insolvent NBFC sanctioned a mortgage loan of Rs 600 crores in favour of a company in which YBL cofounder Rana Kapoor’s daughters were directors. The agency also told the court that the Wadhawans floated 150 shell companies to allegedly siphon off the loan sanctioned by YBL.

Meanwhile ED’s probe has allegedly found that DHFL promoters put up a proposal for the sanction of a loan of about Rs 1,700 crore from YBL in the name of Belief Realtors PVT Limited (BRPL) for Bandra Reclamation Project. Subsequently YBL bifurcated the loan into two parts as they were not sanctioned as one entity. Accordingly, Rs 750 crore was sanctioned in the name of BRPL and Rs 950 crore in the name of RKW project. “The loan of Rs 750 was disbursed by the bank. The whole amount was siphoned off the duo as the entire amount was transferred by M/s Belief Realtors Private Limited to M/s DHFL through maze of over 150 shell company M/s RKW Developers Private Limited without making investment in Bandra Reclamation Project for which the loan was sanctioned,” added the official.

The loan of Rs. 600 crore sanctioned by DHFL to DUVPL is a subsidiary of M/s Morgan Credits Pvt. Ltd. (MCPL). Morgan Credits,in turn, are equally held by Kapoor's three daughters.

To support its case on the loans given to DHFL were in lieu of the Rs 600 crore loan given by the Mumbai-based NBFC to Kapoor’s daughter’s company DOIT Urban Venture (India) Pvt Ltd (DUVPL) and were in violations of the guidelines issued by RBI and the National Housing Bank, the agency has attached the statement of the credit risk management committee of the bank. The committee in its view had remarked that the loan to DHFL was without adequate collaterals and assigned to a SRA project of which many approvals were pending.

In February, the ED had summoned the promoters of all major corporates including Anil Ambani, Subhash Chandra, Naresh Goyal, Gautam Thapar, Sameer Gehlaut and apart from DHFL’s Wadhawan brothers Kapil and Dheeraj, who are currently in the agency’s custody. Sources pegged the loan exposure of the Anil Ambani-led group at Rs 12,8000 crore, Essel Group at Rs 8,400 crore, DHFL at Rs 3,700 crore, Avantha at Rs 1,900 crore, Jet Airways at Rs 550 crore and Indiabulls at Rs 425 crore as of December 31.

“While a few borrowers had been summoned in the past, none of them have answered satisfactorily. They will be summoned again once the lockdown relaxes,” said another person in privy of the development.