SC orders ED to attach corporate properties of JP Morgan for violation of FEMA in Amrapali case

The Supreme Court Monday asked the Enforcement Directorate to attach the Indian properties of JP Morgan, which engaged in a transaction with the now-defunct Amrapali Group to allegedly siphon off homebuyers' money in violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and FDI norms. ED said it has prima facie found that there was a violation of FEMA norms by the US-based JP Morgan and a complaint in this regard has been lodged.

As per the Share Subscription Agreement, JP Morgan had invested Rs 85 crore on October 20, 2010, to have a preferential claim on profits in the ratio of 75 percent to JP Morgan and 25 percent to promoters of Amrapali Homes Project Private Limited and Ultra Home. Later, the same number of shares were bought back from JP Morgan for Rs 140 crore by two companies M/s Neelkanth and M/s Rudraksha, owned by a peon and an office boy of Amrapali's statutory auditor Anil Mittal.

A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and U U Lalit was told by ED joint director Rajeshwar Singh, who is supervising the probe against JP Morgan, that the MNC remitted the money back to the USA. "They (JP Morgan) have a lot of properties in India. We want you to attach their office or corporate properties of like amount. Then they will come running to us and we will see to it," the bench said.

Singh said that now the adjudication process against the firm has begun as per the law. The bench also allowed the ED to take into custody the defunct group's CMD Anil Kumar Sharma and the other two directors Shiv Priya and Ajay Kumar, who are behind bars on the top court's order for interrogation under alleged money laundering offenses.

It said that the ED can take them into custody immediately and once interrogation is over, they can be put back into jail here.