The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday arrested Lalit Goyal, managing director of IREO Group of companies, in connection with a money laundering case involving over ₹2,600 crore. He has been accused of cheating investors and home buyers by diverting the funds.
Mr. Goyal was produced before a special court that sent him to seven-day ED custody. The agency said he was a settler and the named beneficiary of one Guernsey-based overseas Trust, which owned and controlled certain entities holding assets outside India.
Four such entities with registered addresses in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) — beneficially owned by him — were named in the “Pandora Papers” exposé. They held assets worth over $77.73 million (about ₹575 crore), according to the ED.
The money laundering probe is being conducted on the basis of cases registered by the police in Haryana’s Panchkula and the Economic Offences Wing of the Delhi police, against IREO Private Limited, IREO Fiveriver Private Limited, Mr. Goyal and others.
It is alleged that the group diverted and routed funds by involving various entities based in tax havens like the BVI and Mauritius, via buyback of equity shares, recording of fictitious expenses in the books of accounts, writing off loans and advances to sister concerns and round-tripping through shell companies.
The ED had earlier issued a look-out circular against Mr. Goyal. He was detained at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport in the early hours of November 11, following an alert that he was attempting to leave the country. Subsequently, he was arrested as he was not cooperating in the investigation, the agency said.
