India's Enforcement Directorate has successfully attached fugitive jeweler Nirav Modi and his family's assets worth over £63.7 million, including two apartments in New York's Central Park. The assets, which were part of five separate orders issued by the central probe agency under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), included properties in London and New York, bank balances in Singapore and other countries, a flat in Mumbai and diamond studded jewellery that was shipped to India from Singapore.
The agency said that investigators have got issued multiple court-issued Letters Rogatories (judicial requests) for a legal formalisation of these assets and the action has come to fruition after three months of “close coordination” between the ED and its foreign counterparts. The ED said, “The international cooperation has bore fruit. This has resulted in the seizure and provisional attachment of jewellery, bank accounts, and immovable properties worth £63.7 million in India as well as four foreign jurisdictions. This has also resulted in the recovery and return of jewellery from abroad.”
The attached assets also include two apartments worth £21.6 million in New York's popular central park area, and are under Modi's name. “A flat worth £5.69 million on Marylebone road in London has also been attached and Nirav Modi's sister Purvi is its 'beneficial owner',” the ED said. Also seized is diamond jewellery worth £2.27 million, after getting them to India from Hong Kong in 23 shipments. The ED said that bank balance of £440,000, kept in an account in Singapore, in the name of a British Virgin Island-based company has also been attached.
The beneficial owners of these deposits have been identified as Purvi Modi and her husband Maiank Mehta. Five other overseas bank accounts, holding £27.8 million, have been attached and they belong to Nirav Modi, Purvi Modi, and their controlled firms. “During the course of the investigation, it was found that most of the money was transferred to these accounts after FIRs were filed in this scam,” the agency said.
Besides attaching assets, an Interpol Red Corner notice was also issued against Aditya Nanavati, an accused in the same case, on charges of money laundering, the ED said. Both Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, a co-accused in the case, left India in the first week of January. While Modi is in the UK and has applied for asylum in June, Choksi has acquired the citizenship of Antigua and Barbuda and is learnt to be residing there.
