Assets worth Rs 216 crore of Chennai firm attached by ED for FEMA violations
India Today
Enforcement Directorate officials have seized assets worth over Rs 216 crore of a Chennai-based firm for violating Foreign Exchange Management rules.
Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials on Thursday seized assets worth Rs 216.40 crore of a Chennai-based firm Southern Agrifurane Industries Private Limites Ltd, and its Director MGM Maran (former chairman of Tamilnad Mercantile Bank Limited) and MGM Anand, under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).
The seized assets include land and buildings owned by the firm in Tamil Nadu and Telangana along with shares owned by MGM Maran in Tamilnad Mercantile Bank Limited (representing 3.31% shares of the bank, which has filed a Draft Red Hearing Prospectus for IPO recently).
The seized assets also include shares of Indian companies - Southern Agrifurane Industries Private Limites Ltd, MGM Entertainment Pvt Ltd and Anand Transport Pvt Ltd owned by MGM Anand.
According to ED, the firm is found to have siphoned off Indian funds of Rs 216.40 crore abroad under the garb of Overseas Direct Investments (ODI) by way of false declarations to the bank.
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“The firm also siphoned off by way of structuring transactions in a manner so as to send outward remittances without any bonafide and with sole objective of removing funds from India in the name of Overseas Direct Investment without there being any genuine business reasons for the Indian company SAIPL. Such funds have been diverted outside India under the garb of ODI with an intention to escape the clutches of Indian laws. In this way, the company siphoned off around 85% of its entire net worth abroad,” said the ED.
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