ED attaches luxury cars, flats worth Rs 26.65-cr of journalist Upendra Rai in PMLA case

Assets worth Rs 26.65 crore, including luxury cars and flats, of journalist Upendra Rai and his family have been attached in connection with a money laundering and alleged extortion case against him, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said today.

The central probe agency issued a provisional order for attachment of properties, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), that included cars like Audi and Mercedes, residential floors in the posh Greater Kailash-I area of the national capital, a similar property on Hailey road near Connaught Place, a penth house in Lucknow and a flat in Jalvayu Vihar in sector 21 of Noida, near here.

Few other assets including investments in mutual funds and bank deposits (worth Rs 5.62 crore) have been attached as part of the order and the total value of the assets is worth Rs 26.65 crore, the agency said in a statement.

Rai was arrested on June 8 by the ED under the anti-money laundering law from the Tihar Jail here, moments after he secured bail in a Central Bureau of Investigation case related to alleged extortion and dubious financial transactions.

"Rai was found involved in extortion of huge amount of money from different companies and corporate houses. He then layered the ill-gotten money and integrated the same into financial system and finally projected it as untainted money.

"Rai has been involved in generation and laundering of proceed of crime worth Rs 29,58,09,570 as per estimates," the ED said.

It said the "proceeds of crime" so generated was projected as received from different companies "in the name of consultancy services" provided by him.

"Rai sent cash to different companies and asked them to return it to him through banking channels. These transactions were not legal. To give genuine and legal shape to those transactions, he insisted those companies to enter into agreement with them/their associates for consultancy services, issued false invoices and received payments through banking channels against the cash sent by him.

"The agreements and invoices were bogus and sham and were actually used to project the illegally generated money as received bonafide," it said.

Another modus operandi used by Rai, the ED charged, was of receiving huge amount of money "through shell (bogus) companies/proprietorship."

"These shell companies are controlled by entry operators. The entry operators were contacted by Rai from whom he obtained bank entries against the cash given by him or his associates.

"Rai has been involved in layering of these cash through several other shell companies to hide its origin and finally integrate it by getting it transferred to his account," it said.

The ED alleged that Rai used illegally generated money by adopting these modus operandi to acquire various properties in his or in the name of his family members and also used it to repay the loans taken from financial organisations to acquire some other properties.

The agency said further probe in this case is still on even as it has filed a charge sheet (prosecution complaint) against him before a Delhi court recently.

The journalist was arrested by the CBI on May 3 for allegedly indulging in dubious financial transactions, getting an airport access pass made by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) by furnishing false information, alleged extortion and manipulation of an Income Tax Department case against a Mumbai-based businessman.

The ED had registered a money laundering case against him based on the CBI FIR.

In its FIR, the CBI has alleged that going by the value of transactions of over Rs 1 lakh each during 2017, Rai's accounts received Rs 79 crore while Rs 78.51 crore was debited from it during the period.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)