ED conducts raids in ABG Shipyard money laundering & bank loan fraud case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday raided multiple premises in Mumbai, Pune and Surat in connection with a money laundering probe against ABG Shipyard Ltd in an alleged Rs 22,842 crore bank loan fraud case, officials said.

As many as 26 premises are being searched in these cities by the federal agency under the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), they said.

The searches are being conducted to gather financial documents and related information of the company and its former promoters and linked persons, officials stated.

The ED had filed a money laundering case in February after studying a CBI FIR against the former promoters of the ship building company apart from a forensic audit report prepared on the operations of the group.

The CBI had booked ABG Shipyard Ltd and its then chairman and managing director Rishi Kamlesh Agarwal along with others for allegedly cheating a consortium of banks of over Rs 22,842 crore.

It had also named the then executive director Santhanam Muthaswamy, directors Ashwini Kumar, Sushil Kumar Agarwal and Ravi Vimal Nevetia and another company ABG International Pvt Ltd for alleged offences of criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust and abuse of official position under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Prevention of Corruption Act.  The ED is looking into the charges of alleged “diversion” of bank loan funds, creation of shell firms to launder public money and the role of the executives of the company and others.

Instances of “huge investments” being made in the overseas subsidiary of the company by “diverting” the loans will also form an essential part of the ED probe, officials had told

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