ED attaches over Rs 1,300 crore worth assets in money laundering case against IREO, promoters

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate has attached assets worth more than Rs 1,317 crore of real estate group IREO, its managing director and vice president Lalit Goyal and associated entities as part of a money laundering investigation.

The attached properties include land, commercial spaces, plots, residential houses and bank accounts, the federal agency said in a statement issued on Saturday.

The total value of these attached properties is Rs 1,317.30 crore.

The ED took cognisance of at least 30 FIRs filed in various police stations located in Gurugram, Panchkula, Ludhiana and Delhi against the group, linked entities, its directors, key managerial persons and others, to file a money laundering case.

The probe found, the agency said, that the accused allegedly "duped" innocent buyers by promising them to deliver flats, plots, commercial spaces etc.However, they neither delivered the projects nor returned their money.  The directors of the company in connivance with others "siphoned off" money collected from buyers and did not use for the intended purpose.

It said they sent this money outside India in the form of buy-back of shares, redemptions, FCDs etc. and giving loans and advances to associated entities/persons, giving excessive incentives and advances to key managerial persons to "fudge" the books of account, who in turn invested it in purchasing immovable properties and shares of various companies within and outside the country, the ED alleged.

Goyal was arrested by the agency in November last year in this case and later it filed a charge sheet before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Panchkula in January.