ED Attaches Fairdeal’s Assets Worth Rs 107.73 Crore

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached movable and immovable assets worth Rs 107.73 crore of the directors of a company called Fairdeal Supplies Ltd after investigating a bank fraud case, the agency has officially announced.

The attached assets include land and building of SIV Industries, Coimbatore, an office building, a farm house and a bungalow in Ahmedabad besides seven fixed deposits, the ED announced, adding that the attachments were done under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA).

The ED began probing a case of bank fraud under PMLA against Fairdeal Supplies Ltd and its directors, namely Ram Prasad Agarwal, Narayan Prasad Agarwal, Pawan Kumar Agarwal and Saurabh Jhunjhunwala, besides others, on the basis of a charge-sheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) before a special court in Kolkata for defrauding the Kolkata-based UCO Bank.

It was revealed that Fairdeal Supplies Ltd and its directors availed of various credit facilities and Foreign Letters of Credit (FLCs) from UCO Bank’s flagship corporate branch in Kolkata fraudulently by submitting inflated and fabricated stock statements, the ED stated.

Fairdeal Supplies Ltd did not route the sale proceeds of coal imported under the Foreign Letters of Credit through UCO Bank resulting in accumulation of Letters of Credit.

“The funds were diverted for other purposes, thereby defrauding the Bank to the tune of Rs 231.95 crore,” the ED stated.

Investigations also revealed that directors of Fairdeal Supplies Ltd directed the buyers of coal to remit the sale proceeds of imported coal to accounts other than those of the firm, with UCO Bank.

Accordingly, the buyers of coal deposited proceeds of the sale in bank accounts other than bank accounts of Fairdeal Supplies Ltd.

From these accounts with banks other than UCO Bank, the funds were then further diverted to acquire assets, the ED stated.