Bank loan fraud: ED attaches Rs 42-cr assets of Kolkata company

Assets worth more than Rs 42 crore of a Kolkata-based company have been attached in connection with a money-laundering probe linked to an alleged bank fraud case, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said on Monday.

A provisional order for attaching 11 properties of Shree Mahalaxmi Corporation Pvt Ltd has been issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The total value of the assets, as per the ED, is Rs 42.36 crore.

The agency said its probe found that the loan amount of Rs 164 crore taken from the SBI was ''diverted after rotating among the bank accounts maintained by various entities and coloring them as genuine business transactions''.

''It was found that various Letters of Credit (LCs) were opened in the name of certain companies against the credit facilities and the same were discounted based on forged invoices, challans, etc,'' it alleged in a statement.

The LC proceeds, the ED said, were later laundered and siphoned off.

The money laundering case is based on a 2017 FIR and a chargesheet (filed in 2019) of the CBI against the company, its directors, and some others ''for defrauding the State Bank of India (SBI) to the extent of Rs 164 crore by availing loan based on false/forged documents and utilizing the said loan amount for a purpose other than for which it was sanctioned''.

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