ED busts Rs 18 crore money laundering racket in Chennai

The accused, Ali was in possession of multiple PAN cards and Driving licenses. He made minor variations in his name to open accounts with various banks.

The Enforcement Directorate on Monday arrested Liakath Ali, the owner of Galaxy Impex under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. Rs 1.75 crore belonging to the accused was also attached by officials in Chennai. Liakath Ali has been remanded to judicial custody.

The Chennai city crime branch police had earlier registered an FIR against Ali for bank fraud. He was booked based on a complaint by the Indian Bank for cheating and using forged documents by certain importers. "This was the case of Trade Based Money Laundering using shell companies by the traders engaged in the imports of electronic consumer goods," the Enforcement Directorate said in a statement. The accused, the ED said, remitted a large amount of foreign exchange out of India cheating the Indian Bank's Thousand Lights Branch in Chennai.

Forged bills of entry were used in the case in the guise of actual documents generated through Electronic Data Interface of the Indian Customs. Using these forged documents, the accused is said to have engaged in outward foreign exchange remittance to the tune of Rs 18,66,54,241. The money was remitted using bank accounts held in the names of shell entities without effecting any physical imports.

Following the FIR by the Chennai police, the ED took up investigations under the provisions of the PMLA and identified Liakath Ali as the mastermind. "He was operating a firm by the name of Galaxy Impex and opened fictitious bank accounts with various banks," the statement by ED said.

Incriminating documents were recovered from premises of the accused and his aides during searches. The recovered documents revealed that forged bills of entry were used in the shell companies' accounts to facilitate outward remittance of foreign exchange. The ED's investigations also disclosed that out of 25 tranches of Galaxy Impex, every remittance except one was made by filing forged bills of entry with the Authorized Bank. Further investigations are in progress.

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