The Enforcement Directorate has attached properties worth £14.77 million of fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi and his companies. The attached movable and immovable properties are located in Mumbai and Surat in Gujarat, and have a market value of £14.77 million. The properties comprise eight cars, plant and machinery, consignments of jewellery, paintings and some buildings, they said. The properties are owned by Modi, who is an accused in the £1.3 billion PNB scam, and his group of companies namely Firestar Diamond International Private Limited, Firestar International Private Limited, Radheshir Jewelry Company Private Limited and Rhythm House Private Limited.
The properties were attached by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. Investigation revealed that substantial proceeds of crime obtained fraudulently by the Nirav Modi-owned group of firms, Solar Exports, Stellar Diamonds and Diamond R US, from Punjab National Bank were diverted to him, his relatives and entities controlled by him. On the basis of an FIR registered by the Central Bureau of investigation, the ED had earlier registered a money laundering case against Modi and others on February 15, 2018, under the provisions of the PMLA, another official said.
It was alleged that Modi and others committed the offence of cheating PNB in connivance with certain bank officials by fraudulently getting letters of undertaking issued without following the prescribed procedure and caused a wrongful loss to the bank.
