ED attaches Chartered Accountant’s Immovable and Moveable Properties worth Rs.56.81 Crore in Syndicate Bank’s Fraud Case

The Chartered Accountant reportedly engaged in the Syndicate Bank Fraud has had his immovable and moveable possessions valued at Rs.56.81 crore attached by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

During Investigation, it was revealed that from 2011 to 2016, the Assets worth Rs.56.81 crore, belonged to Rajasthan’s Udaipur-based Chartered Accountant Bharat Bomb and his colleagues in the Rs.1,267.79 crore Syndicate Bank fraud case.

On the basis of a First Information Report (FIR) submitted by the ED and a charge sheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation against officers of the former Syndicate Bank (now Canara Bank) and others, the ED launched a money-laundering investigation.

Earlier in the inquiry, the ED had issued four provisional attachment orders for a total of Rs.478.66 crore in assets. There was also a seizure of Rs.2.25 crore in the form of a demand draught. With this attachment, the total value of the case’s attachments is estimated to be Rs 537.72 crore.

Bharat Bomb transferred proceeds of crime created by the fraud to numerous bank accounts operated/controlled by him through a complicated maze of transactions for placement, stacking, and integration of the tainted funds, according to the ED probe. He put these tainted funds into immovable properties in the names of himself, his family, associates, employees, tribal persons, bogus firms, and companies, among others.

“The fraudsters’ methods included having loans approved in their names or in the names of family members, as well as bogus cheque discounting purportedly issued by Bharat Bomb’s shell firms.” The crooks never paid back the loans, according to the ED.

Agricultural land, plots, shops, offices, flats, fixed deposits, and bank accounts are among the properties attached. The PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) of 2002 was used to seize these properties. Bharat Bomb, Shankar Lal Khandelwal, and others own these assets.