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The Times of India
The Times of India
National
Vijay V Singh | TNN

Confiscate Rs 300 crore in Mumbai Limo’s Singapore bank accounts, says court

MUMBAI: In a ray of hope for the 70,000 investors who lost money in the Ponzi schemes floated by City Limouzines, a court here has ordered confiscation of Rs 300 crore lying in the company bank accounts in Singapore.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had moved an application under Section 7 & Section 8 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act pertaining to confiscation and restoration of assets to investors.

The ED said that based on the court order, it will move the appropriate authority of foreign jurisdiction for repatriation of these funds.

The special PMLA court judge M G Deshpande said: “There are thousands of investors who had lost their hard-earned money by investing in the schemes of the accused. The decision of the court is the only ray of hope in their life. “This is besides the attached properties worth Rs 191 crore of City Limouzines and its chairman Sayyed Masood by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the city police and ED jointly.

It was alleged that Sayed Masood through City group companies laundered the investor money by routing it through various countries and invested it in movable and immovable properties in India and abroad. Earlier the ED had attached the bank balance of the accused worth Rs 300 crore in Singapore.

It was alleged that Masood had opened many entities and bank accounts abroad without the statutory permission in violation of the law to launder the proceeds of his criminal activity after cheating investors of around Rs 700 crore.

The court said: “Since 2015 till date work of collection of cases is going on. No one is sure when actual charges will be framed in PMLA cases and 132 cases relating to scheduled offences. Of course, the court is bound to try and conclude all the trials at the earliest and will take all efforts, however it is a fact that it will take a long time to conclude the trial. ”

In 2015, after the Supreme Court ordered all 132 cases pending against Masood in different states to be consolidated and transferred to the PMLA special Court in the city for trial.

The court noted that if not secured, Masood may make an attempt at repeating his past actions, like when he, through a power of attorney, sold one of the provisionally attached properties in Hinjewadi near Pune.

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