The Enforcement Directorate (ED) searched 16 premises across Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi, covering office and residential premises of Securekloud Tech Ltd, Pro Fin Capital Services Ltd, Quantum Global Securities Ltd, Unity Global Financial Services Pvt Ltd, Desert River Capital Pvt Ltd under PMLA, 2002.
ED initiated a money laundering investigation on the basis of an FIR filed by Suresh Venkatachari, the promoter and CEO of Securekloud Technologies Limited (STL), against QGSL, its Directors and one Rohit Arora. A case was registered under PMLA. STL, earlier known as 8k Miles Software Services Limited, is a software and IT services company with a presence in India and US.
The complainant alleged that the stockbroker and financial service companies sold the shares pledged by the STL promoter for a loan. The complaint also stated that the share brokers who provided the loan forged the signatures on delivery Instruction slips and sold the shares in off-market transactions.
The federal agency unearthed alleged fraud worth over Rs 190 crore during the investigation.
The investigation revealed that the directors and beneficial owners of these share brokerage and financial services companies transferred shares worth Rs 160 crores in off-market transactions and subsequently sold the same to generate huge proceeds of crime.
ED found the STL promoter’s complaint to be misleading as the agency suspects the latter of being involved in a larger conspiracy of cheating the general public by inflating the company’s accounts and diverting funds to unrelated business activities of companies.
The economic intelligence and enforcement unit of the Finance Ministry’s Department of Revenue said it was probing the case from the perspective of money laundering, based on evidence that STL management manipulated the company’s stock with the help of certain stock brokers.
In this matter, the searches conducted led to the seizure of Rs 1.04 crore worth of cash, gold and diamond jewelry. Also, immovable properties worth over Rs 30 crore were identified during the raids. The search also led to the discovery of other movable assets in various DMAT accounts as well as the seizure of incriminating documents and digital evidence, according to the ED statement.
