Auditors find 31 undisclosed firms linked to Amrapali

The Supreme Court refused to grant permission to Amrapali group’s directors, Anil Kumar Sharma, Shiv Priya and Ajay Kumar, to celebrate Diwali at home. A bench led by Arun Mishra said they will continue to be under police surveillance at a hotel in Noida.

The bench also reiterated its earlier orders, directing the real estate firm to disclose the names of all companies with which it had any kind of transactions after forensic auditors pointed out that homebuyers’ money was transferred to more than 200-250 such firms.

Besides 47 sister companies, the forensic auditors have stumbled upon 31 more firms that were never disclosed by the Amrapali group.

The firms were also asked to disclose details of luxury cars owned by the company and their registration numbers after the forensic auditors flagged that a luxury car was given to Amrapali’s chief financial officer (CFO). The CFO was told to disclose by Thursday details of the companies he had incorporated, the homebuyers’ money which was transferred to these companies, on whose authorisation the funds were transferred and the benefits he took from the Amrapali group

“We understand everything what is happening. We are not saying anything at present but waiting for the proofs and disclosure of details. They may hide the information for say seven days but on the eighth day we will have the information, no matter what,” Justice Mishra observed.

“It appears that they were not only in construction business, but into something else also,” said the bench.

The court said money of innocent buyers could not be misused and ordered Mauritius-based JP Morgan company to file its account statement with regard to its transaction with Amrapali. Counsel for JP Morgan said his client had invested more than ₹100 crore in the real estate business of Amrapali Group and they had a claim of ₹168 crore from the firm.

“We have no iota of doubt that not only promoters, CFO and the internal auditors of the Amrapali Group were part of the syndicate. Prima facie, we have found the relatives of promoters, CFO and internal auditors were directors in these companies, where the money was transferred,” the forensic auditors told the court.

In compliance of the court’s earlier orders, the company has handed over 117 computers used by it to the court-appointed auditors. However, 36 were not working and many were password protected, which were not disclosed to them. At this, the court ordered the firm to disclose the password within three days and also mark which computer belonged to which company.

“Being in the know-how of things you incorporated these companies which acted as conduit for transferring the money which Amrapali legally cannot do,” the Supreme Court bench said.

First Published: Nov 01, 2018 08:35 IST