Top 10 Enforcement Directorate (ED) Cases

1. PNB Scam: Punjab National Bank announced in 2018 that it discovered fraudulent transactions amounting to $1.77 billion at a Mumbai branch. The fraud involved Mehul Choksi and the main accused Nirav Modi. Criminal proceedings have been initiated against Mehul Choksi by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate. Subsequent to a complaint filed by Punjab National Bank, the CBI named Mehul Choksi and a few of his firms for allegedly issuing fraudulent Letters of Undertaking and thereby causing losses to the Bank. Eventually, a complaint was also filed by the ED alleging that Choksi was involved in money laundering the proceeds of the crime in a certain overseas bank account. Choksi has been charged under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, and provisions pertaining to cheating and criminal conspiracy of the Indian Penal Code, and relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act. 2. Vijay Mallya Scam: Vijay Mallya, an Indian businessman, owes an estimated Rs. 9,000 cr. to 17 Indian banks. He is accused of money laundering and fraud in the country. The global recession and high fuel prices brought Mallya's Kingfisher Airlines to a stop. He fled to the UK in 2016 after the lenders insisted upon returning the debts and a few public-sector banks moved to the Debt Recovery Tribunal. He was declared a fugitive economic offender under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act in January 2019. He has exhausted all legal remedies available to him to fight the Indian government's efforts to bring him back to face charges of defrauding a large number of banks. Recently, the ED attached assets worth Rs. 18, 170.02 cr. under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and managed to recover assets worth Rs. 9,041.5 cr. for public sector banks. This amount represents around 40 percent of the loss suffered by public sector banks at the hands of Vijay Mallya, Mehul Choksi, and Nirav Modi. 3. Saradha Chit Fund Scam: Saradha Group is an umbrella company in West Bengal with more than 200 private players. It has cheated over a million investors through its collective investment scheme. In April 2013, the MD and Chairman of the company, and Director Debjani Mukherjee were arrested along with a few other senior officials. After their arrest, the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) directed the Saradha Group to cease raising further capital and return the deposits within three months. In August this year, the Enforcement Directorate also filed a chargesheet against TMC General Secretary Kunal Ghosh along with a senior journalist Suman Chattopadhyay charging them with money laundering. Various sections of the PMLA were added in the chargesheet filed before a special court in Kolkata. The chargesheet also requested confiscating the attached assets. 4. INX Media Case: The INX Media Case is about the alleged irregularities related to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to the media group INX Media for receiving overseas funds of Rs. 307 cr. during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. The Enforcement Directorate was handed over the case by the Income Tax department, which registered a case against INX Media for alleged violations of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) in 2010. Indrani Mukerjea and her husband Peter, who co-founded INX Media in 2007, were accused of conspiring with Karti Chidambaram, whose father P Chidambaram was the finance minister at the time, to obtain foreign investments and avoid punitive measures for failing to obtain the requisite FIPB permits. In connection with the case, the ED has attached Karti Chidambaram's properties worth Rs 54 crore. Indrani and Peter Mukerjea's properties have also been seized by the agency. 5. Rose Valley Chit Fund Scam: Rose Valley is one of the largest financial frauds in India. The scam, much bigger than the Saradha Chit Fund Scam, and according to the Enforcement Directorate, an estimated amount of Rs. 17,520 cr. was raised by investors. According to the ED, a certain portion of the money raised was also used to bribe politicians so that the chit fund would not face any hurdles and run smoothly. 6. ICICI Videocon Loan Case: The case relates to money laundering involving various loans amounting to Rs. 1,875 cr. given to the Videocon Group and associate companies by ICICI. These loans were in violation of various banking regulations and ICICI policies. Former ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar and husband Deepak Kochhar are the main accused in the case. Chanda Kochhar, due to the ongoing investigation, had to step down as the CEO of the Bank in 2018. The ED was investing in the money laundering scam. The ED arrested Deepak Kochhar in September last year under the PMLA. 7. AgustaWestland VVIP Chopper Case: The AgustaWestland VVIP chopper fraud is a bribery case in which it is claimed that bribes were paid to & quot middlemen,& quot maybe even politicians, when India agreed to buy 12 AgustaWestland helicopters from Italian defence corporation Finmeccanica for Rs 3,600 crore. According to sources with the Enforcement Directorate, senior Congress leader Kamal Nath's nephew Ratul Puri and his two sons (Nakul Nath and Bakul Nath) were allegedly the recipients of kickbacks received as part of the helicopter transaction. Ratul Puri, Kamal Nath's nephew, allegedly received $1 million from Christian Michel James, a British national and suspected intermediary. 8. Aviation Scam: The case relates to the Civil Aviation Ministry's procurement of 111 aircraft from Europe's Airbus and the US' Boeing for Rs. 70,000 cr. At that time, Air India was incapacitated to purchase even a few aircraft. The Enforcement Directorate's investigation was based on an FIR that alleged that the decision was to benefit foreign manufacturers of aircraft while causing losses to national carriers. The ED has summoned and questioned many individuals allegedly associated with the scam, the most notable of them being former Civil Aviation Minister, Praful Patel. He has also been questioned by the CBI in relation to the case. 9. The Aircel-Maxis Deal: Maxis is a Malaysian communication service provider that had taken over Aircel in 2006 by acquiring a 74% stake. In 2011, Aircel's owner filed a complaint with the CBI and alleged that he was forced to sell the stake to Maxis. It was later alleged that Maxis Group invested around Rs. 742 cr. in Sun Direct owned by the Maran family. Soon after, a case was registered by the CBI. A year later, the Enforcement Directorate registered a case of money laundering against the Maran brothers. 10. The Sterling Biotech Case: The case relates to money laundering of over Rs. 100 cr. The four accused in the case have been declared fugitive economic offenders following the request of the Enforcement Directorate so as to confiscate their assets. So far, the ED has been able to attach assets worth Rs. 14,500 cr. The money laundering probe conducted by the ED is based on 2 FIRs registered by the CBI. One of the FIRs related to defaults in bank loans amounting to Rs. 8,100 cr.