The Enforcement Directorate has identified about 300 overseas accounts allegedly linked to ‘hawala king’ Naresh Jain, who was recently arrested on money laundering charges. The accused had rotated over ₹96,000 crore in India and facilitated transfer of about ₹11,800 crore abroad.
The overseas accounts were opened in Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore. Funds were also transferred through more than 600 domestic bank accounts. A large number of accounts were opened using computer-generated photographs of non-existent people. Forged PAN card and Voter ID details were furnished for the purpose, the agency alleges.
Employing a similar modus operandi, about 500 shell companies were incorporated for money laundering activities. Accommodation entries for about ₹19,000 crore were provided to as many as 970 beneficiaries, who are being identified.
Multiple offices
The 61-year-old accused had set up multiple offices in the national capital region to oversee the ‘hawala’ and money laundering operations in India and abroad. He roped in about 500 people to work for the syndicate.
Jain had earlier come under the scanner of law enforcement agencies in the United Arab Emirates, Italy, Germany, United Kingdom and the United States. The U.K.’s Serious and Organised Crime Agency had in 2009 shared with its Indian counterparts a report involving him. He was then allegedly operating from Dubai, where he lived for 14 years, and had suspected links with Albanian and Italian drug dealers.
The international syndicate was said to be involved in large-scale illegal money transfers across several countries, including Canada, Australia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Turkey, China, Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
Joint operation
A joint international operation culminated in the arrest of the accused and nine others by the Dubai police in April 2007. “His network was also suspected to have assisted transfer of drug money and bribes in UAE Dirham, amounting to about ₹2 lakh crore. The funds were traced to some bank accounts in the U.S. Based on the findings, a U.S. court confiscated assets worth $4.3 million in 2009,” said an official.
It is alleged that Jain jumped bail in Dubai and escaped to India via Nepal in May 2009. The same year, in December, the Narcotics Control Bureau arrested him and then he was detained by the ED. He remained in judicial detention for more than a year.
