ED attaches assets worth Rs 21 crore of 'hawala dealer' Naresh Jain in money laundering case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday said it has attached flats and land belonging to alleged hawala dealer Naresh Jain, worth more than Rs 21 crore, as part of a money laundering investigation against him.

A total of five immovable properties located in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh, Solan in Himachal Pradesh and in Gujarat's Gandhinagar have been seized after a provisional order was issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the federal agency said in a statement.

The total value of these assets is Rs 21.31 crore, it said.

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"Naresh Jain and others conducted international and domestic hawala operation of providing accommodation entries to co-conspirators i.e. the beneficiaries in lieu of his commission," the agency charged.

"For this purpose, Naresh Jain along with his accomplices, confidants, employees and others established structure of shell (bogus) entities by incorporating companies or forming other business entities like firm or individual proprietorship," the ED charged.

Hawala pertains to movement of cash in India and abroad through concealed channels in order to avoid tax and other enforcement agencies.

Jain incorporated and operated 450 Indian entities and 104 foreign entities, it alleged.

These entities were incorporated by using original identity proofs and documents of "dummy" shareholders and directors as well by "fabricating" identity proofs and documents of these shareholders and directors, the ED found.

These shell companies or entities were used to open and operate bank accounts for facilitating "bogus/over-invoiced/under-invoiced" import and export transactions, providing desired accommodation entries to known and unknown beneficiaries by rotating/layering of funds through web of these shell companies in order to cause undue benefit to the parties involved and "loss to the exchequer and banks" in lieu of commission, it alleged.

Jain, 65, was last arrested by the ED in September, 2020 in a money laundering case linked to dubious transactions worth over Rs 1 lakh crore made using over 550 shell firms over the last few years.

The agency had then alleged that total proceeds of crime generated by Jain and his accomplices in the form of commission on these hawala and domestic accommodation entry transactions detected till date was Rs 565 crore.

This money laundering case against Jain stems from a 2018 FIR of the Delhi Police Economic Offences Wing (EOW).

He was also arrested by the ED in 2009 in a PMLA case emerging from a case filed by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in December that year.

Jain has been under the scanner of probe agencies for long and in 2016, the ED had slapped a Rs 1,200-crore notice on him for alleged contravention of the foreign exchange law.

The serious organised crime agency (SOCA) of the UK had also given a report on Jain and his associates' alleged money laundering activities to India in 2009 when he was based in Dubai.

The Dubai Police had arrested him with nine others in February, 2007 on charges of similar crimes and he later got bail.

ED officials had said that Jain fled from Dubai in 2009 and he had two Interpol-issued global arrest warrants against him at that time.