ED files charge sheet against IREO realty group promoter Lalit Goyal, others

Money laundering, real estate fraud some of the charges against IREO group MD Lalit Goyal

January 21, 2022

Modi Government cracking the whip on errant realty promoters

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday filed its first charge sheet against real estate group IREO’S vice-chairman and MD Lalit Goyal and others in a money laundering case related to an alleged multi-crore real estate scam. Goyal, currently in jail was apprehended from Delhi Airport on his way to the USA by ED on November 11, 2021, is facing probes by Delhi Police and Haryana Police for more than 1000 home buyers’ complaints. His name was also figured in Pandora Papers for holding illegal accounts in many tax havens.

A Special court handling Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in Panchkula, Haryana has taken cognizance of the charge sheet. The agency has accused Goyal and others of perpetrating a real estate fraud alleging that “1,050 homebuyers and investors of IREO Projects like IREO Fiveriver, The Corridors, IREO City, Gurgaon Hills in Haryana and IREO Waterfront Township in Punjab, among others, had made advance payments but are yet to receive their booked flats/ plots despite lapse of more than 4-5 years”. ED said that IREO Group’s real estate companies could not complete their projects due to “diversion and siphoning of funds”.

“Customer receipts to the tune of Rs.1,225 crore have been diverted outside India in the form of redemption, purchase, transfer, and buy-back of shares, FCDs or fully convertible debentures, etc. Violating the FDI policy and other laws. “…..The modus operandi adopted by the group includes routing of funds to India from various entities based in tax havens like the British Virgin Islands, Mauritius, recording of fictitious expenses in the books of account, writing off the project in progress, interest-free loans, and advances to sister concerns and round-tripping of funds through shell companies and creation of assets within and outside India,” the ED statement said.

IREO Group ventured into the real estate and infrastructure business in 2004 and had grown very fast. Lalit Goyal is the brother-in-law of BJP leader Sudhanshu Mittal. The Group has undertaken more than 30 projects in the real estate and infrastructure sector for the past 15 years. Describing the role of Goyal, the ED said, he is a “settler and named beneficiary of an overseas trust which owns and controls entities holding assets outside India”. The agency said that the global ‘Pandora Papers Leak‘ also named four entities that are beneficially owned by Goyal and are holding assets of more than Sudhanshu Mittal (Rs.575 crore approximately) overseas.

The ED’s criminal investigation against Goyal was filed after taking cognizance of as many as 30 FIRs filed by police stations in Panchkula and Gurgaon in Haryana, Ludhiana in Punjab, and Delhi.

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