The Enforcement Directorate has arrested the director of Hoewelai Jinsu, Hong Kong, SAR, China Limited, in connection with a case of alleged fraud committed on the lenders by taking credit facilities under the guise of merchant trade.
The accused, Anup Nagaral, had recently returned to India and appeared before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) that arrested him in December 2021 in another case. He was later released on bail. He was not appearing before the special court under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 for trial in the case probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
The court issued an arrest warrant against him, based on which the agency arrested Nagaral. He has been sent to judicial custody till January 17. He is one of the accused in the chargesheet filed by the ED in July 28 last year.
Nagaral is the director of Hoewelai Jinsu, Hong Kong, SAR, China Limited, which was one of the parties in the buyer leg of a tripartite merchandise trade with the Spices Trading Corporation Limited (STCL) and overseas buyers/sellers. It is alleged that two of the entities, FMPL & FEIPL, did not honour the tripartite agreements. They had guaranteed the payments to be made by overseas buyers.
Naveen Sriram, chairman of FMPL & FEIPL, and its then managing director Sudheer Sriram had executed a deed of personal and corporate guarantee in favour of STCL against the latter agreeing to provide finance for facilitating trade between the parties concerned. The corporate guarantee could be invoked by STCL in the event of any default in repayment of dues.
As per the arrangement, STCL issued irrevocable letters of credit with a validity period of 90 days. However, the letters of credit devolved due to non-payment by overseas buyers, which had been guaranteed by FMPL and FEIPL. This resulted in a wrongful loss of $249.57 million to STCL.
In this case, which is based on a First Information Report registered by the High Ground police station, Bengaluru City, the agency had earlier attached assets worth ₹185.67 crore in Maharashtra, Punjab, Delhi, Gujarat, Bengaluru and Bellary.
