ED Attached Chartered Accountant’s Assets Valued at 56.81 Cr in Syndicate Bank Fraud Case

In the Syndicate Bank Fraud case, the ED has provisionally attached immovable and movable properties worth Rs. 56.81 crore belonging to fraudsters Bharat Bomb, Shankar Lal Khandelwal, and their other associates under the PMLA, 2002.

In a syndicate bank fraud case, the Enforcement Directorate has provisionally attached agricultural land, plots, shops, offices, flats, FDs, and bank accounts worth Rs. 56.81 crore belonging to fraudsters Bharat Bomb, Shankar Lal Khandelwal, and their other associates under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.

The ED launched an investigation into money laundering based on FIRs registered an”d charge sheets submitted by the CBI, BS & FC, New Delhi against officers of the former Syndicate Bank (now Canara Bank) and others. During the inquiry, it was discovered that from 2011 to 2016, the main fraudster, Bharat Bomb, a Chartered Accountant residing in Udaipur (Rajasthan), defrauded the erstwhile Syndicate Bank to the tune of Rs. 1267.79 Crore in conjunction with bank employees. The scammers’ methods included getting loans sanctioned in their names or the names of family members, as well as phoney cheque discounting purportedly issued by shell firms owned by Bharat Bomb. The scammers never paid back the loans.

The ED investigation indicated that the proceeds of crime created by the fraud were transferred by Bharat Bomb to numerous bank accounts operated/controlled by him via a complicated maze of transactions for the placement, stacking, and integration of the tainted funds. He invested these tainted funds in real estate in the names of himself, his family members, associates, employees, tribal people, phoney firms, companies, and so on.

Earlier in the inquiry, the ED had issued four Provisional Attachment Orders, totaling Rs. 478.66 crore in assets. In addition, a Demand Draft seizure of Rs. 2.25 Crore was taken out. With the current attachment, the total attachment in the case is about Rs. 537.72 Crore.

More research is being conducted.