The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached factory premises worth ₹13.14 crore in Thailand in relation to the money-laundering investigation being carried out against diamantaires Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and others.
The factory premises are owned by Abbeycrest (Thailand) Ltd, a Gitanjali Group company. The property had been identified during investigation, and after gathering concrete evidence of ownership, it was attached under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, an ED statement said.
“Abbeycrest (Thailand) is the beneficiary of the Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) issued by Punjab National Bank (PNB) to the tune of ₹92.3 crore. These LoUs were issued unauthorisedly and fraudulently,” an ED official said.
An LoU is a form of bank guarantee through which a bank allows its customer to raise money from another Indian bank’s foreign branch in the form of short-term credit.
Extradition request
With the latest move, the value of attachment and seizure in the PNB scam aggregates to ₹4,765 crore. Further investigations are on.
“We have requested for Nirav Modi’s extradition from the UK and are waiting to hear back,” said the official. The request was sent four months ago.
The ED has registered two separate money-laundering cases in the PNB fraud case on the basis of an FIR registered by the CBI.