Court declares 2 businessmen fugitive economic offenders in case linked to illegal remittances: ED

A special court in Chennai has declared two businessmen as fugitive economic offenders in a money laundering case linked to remittances sent abroad in an alleged illegal manner, the Enforcement Directorate said on Saturday.

The federal agency identified the two as Sudarshan Venkatraman and Ramanujam Sesharathnam, the erstwhile promoter directors of Zylog Systems Limited.

"A special CBI court in Chennai has declared them as 'Fugitive Economic Offenders' for the offences under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018 (FEOA)," it said.

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The probe found that "proceeds of crime to the extent of Rs 186 crore had been derived by the accused by committing the scheduled offences, the agency alleged.

Out of this, proceeds of crime to the extent of "Rs 58.12 crore has been taken outside the country by Sudarsan Venkatraman and Ramanujam Sesharathnam under the guise of making remittances to their subsidiary ZSL Inc., USA and also against the bogus invoices raised by one of the vendors of ZSL company viz. M/s ISS Inc," it said.

"The duo has used the two flagship companies and several other conduits and fake companies to launder banks' loans with the help of company officials and employees," it said.

The court has also ordered the confiscation of Rs 33 crore worth of assets attached by the ED earlier in this case under the FEOA, it said.

The money laundering case stems from a CBI FIR.