The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has frozen 182 bank accounts and seized more than Rs 1 crore in cash and six high-end cars during a raid in connection with Rs 2,000 crore multi-state chit fund scam, officials said on Tuesday.
In a post on X, the ED said its Bhubaneswar Zonal Office has conducted search operations under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) on August 5 at five premises linked with Wellfare Buildings and Estates Pvt Ltd (WBEPL) and its directors at Visakhapatnam and Hyderabad in connection with the investigation in the chit fund scam.
The raids were conducted on the premises of ex-Andhra Pradesh MLA Malla Vilaya Prasad, Varaha Ramakrishna Satya Sinivasa Rao Alla and others, it said.
During the raid, cash in Indian currency amounting to Rs 1.01 crore along with various movable and immovable properties, incriminating materials/documents (property documents, various digital devices) related to WBEPL, its directors and related entities were recovered and seized, the central agency said.
The ED has also issued freezing orders for 182 bank accounts along with seizure of six high-end luxury vehicles of WBEPL and its Directors.
The ED's Bhubaneswar office initiated the investigation based on multiple FIRs and subsequent chargesheets filed by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha Police, CBI, and the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), Jharkhand.During the investigation, the central agency found that the directors and managing director of WBEPL have collected substantial public funds to the tune of more than Rs 2,000 crore unauthorisedly from thousands of gullible investors from multiple states including Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh and others through different schemes under the false pretext of providing land in Visakhapatnam, as per an official statement issued by the ED.
The company, later, closed its operations from the branch offices located across multiple states of India and thereby cheated the investors, it said.
The directors have diverted the investors' funds for unrelated purposes and personal gains, manipulated its financial statements to conceal deposits and engaged in irregular land transactions designed to suppress the true consideration and evade statutory obligations, the statement said.