ED arrests Yes Bank co-founder Rana Kapoor in fresh money laundering case related PMC Bank loan fraud

ED arrested Rana in fresh money laundering case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested Yes Bank’s main promoter Rana Kapoor in a fresh money laundering case linked Rs 4,300 crore fraud at the Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative Bank (PMC) in Maharashtra. Rana Kapoor (63) was already in judicial custody after he was arrested by the agency in March last year in connection with financial irregularities and kickbacks paid to him and his family members in lieu of allotting loans to a number of high-profile borrowers.

He is arrested under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Kapoor was later produced before a special PMLA court that sent him to ED custody till January 30 in the second money laundering case filed against him. The latest case pertains to the loan fraud in the PMC Bank where the ED raided the premises of the Viva Group promoted by Maharashtra MLA and Bahujan Vikas Agadhi (BVA) party chief Hitendra Thakur in the Vasai-Virar areas of Palghar district and Mumbai last week.

The agency said the Wadhawans had “illegally transferred” these properties to Viva Group in violation of the article of association of Mack Star.

The ED filed a criminal case of money laundering in October 2019 to probe alleged loan fraud in the Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank, against Housing Development Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL), its promoters Rakesh Kumar Wadhawan, his son Sarang Wadhawan, the bank’s former Chairman Waryam Singh and ex-managing director Joy Thomas.

The ED is probing the role of the Viva Group, Kapoor and the Wadhawans for allegedly “siphoning off” an Rs.200 crore loan sanctioned by the Yes Bank to a company called Mack Star Marketing Pvt Ltd. “This loan was siphoned by the Wadhawans by showing it for fictitious purpose,” said ED officials.

“It was found that Wadhawans illegally and fraudulently transferred two commercial properties of Mack Star in Kaledonia building, Andheri East (Mumbai) valued at Rs.34.36 crore to Viva Holding, a company of Viva Group,” said ED.

“In the sale agreements, the purchase amount was shown to be paid by 37 cheques by Viva Holding to Mack Star Marketing Pvt Ltd. Investigation has revealed that these cheques were never encashed in the account of Mack Star and Viva Holding never made payments for the purchase of the said property to Mack Star,” said ED.

The agency said the Wadhawans had “illegally transferred” these properties to Viva Group in violation of the article of association of Mack Star. “Viva Holding never showed these properties in its balance sheets,” it had said.