ED Arrested 4 Person in Bank Fraud Case worth Rs.3986 Crore

ED Arrested 4 Person in Bank Fraud Case worth Rs.3986 Crore The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) arrested 4 persons in connection with the Bank Fraud Cases involving more than Rs 3986 Crore by Chennai based Surana Group of Companies on 12.07.2022. The said four persons are Dinesh Chand Surana, Managing Director cum Promoter of M/s Surana Industries Limited, M/s Surana Power Ltd & Promoter of Surana Corporation Ltd.; Vijay Raj Surana, Managing Director cum Promoter of M/s Surana Corporation Limited as well as promoter of M/s Surana Industries Limited & M/s Surana Power Limited, and also P Anand and I Prabhakaran, the dummy directors of shell companies. On the basis of three FIRs filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation, BF&SB, Bengaluru, the ED launched a money laundering investigation. The FIRs alleged that the three companies, as well as their Promoters, Managing Director/Directors, and unidentified individuals, engaged in misappropriation, criminal breach of trust, manipulation of books of accounts through fictitious entities, routed funds through the shell companies, and syphoned off the funds from the legitimate companies. According to the investigation conducted by the ED, these individuals set up a web of fictitious corporations, the dummy directors of which were either members of the Surana family or individuals from their ancestral village, or they were workers for Surana group enterprises. These dummy/shell businesses served as a conduit for the three major group companies' transactions, after which the funds were diverted for other uses like stacking real estate purchases and acquiring benami properties in the names of those shell companies. The investigation also showed that the Surana Group of Companies/Promoters had incorporated a number of companies in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) and Cayman Island in the names of fictitious directors and syphoned off funds to park in those companies via four fictitious companies set up in Singapore. These Singapore-based businesses made money by selling products that Indian companies exported. The receivables have since been wiped down in the Indian firms' accounting records, nevertheless. Further investigation found that thousands of rupees had been transferred from the three major group firms to the aforementioned shell companies, and from the aforementioned shell companies to the promoters' and their wives' personal accounts. The primary offender of this money-laundering scheme is Dinesh Chand Surana, and he actively controlled all of the shell firms. Vijay Raj Surana supported the layering and other transactions, as well as the transactions involving the shell firms, which were nothing more than account manipulation. Directors of these shell businesses P Anand and I Prabhakaran actively conspired with the Surana Management to syphon off monies, aiding and abetting them in their actions of syphoning and laundering public funds. All the 4 persons arrested were produced before the Principal Session Judge Court, Chennai, and the Hon’ble Court granted remand for them for 14 days. i.e., upto 27th July, 2022. Further investigation is in progress.