The Enforcement Directorate (ED), probing the Punjab National Bank (PNB) money laundering case, has found vital evidence in the form of overseas bank statements linked to absconding diamantaire Nirav Modi, which it says proves the overseas money trail .

“ED team managed to get several bank statements from Barbados, Dubai, Hong Kong etc., which prove vital overseas links and money trail relating to Modi and his aides,” the agency said on Tuesday while detailing contents of the second charge sheet filed before the special Prevention of Money Laundering (PMLA) court. “ED has gathered vital evidence against Modi, which discloses owning another chain of jewellery named Bailey Bank and Biddle in USA. Diversion of fraudulent letters of undertaking (LoUs) to the tune of at least USD 47 million (around Rs 327 crore) to this firm has also been found during investigations.” The ED said a “maze of transactions to obfuscate the probe and to cover the tracks of money laundering were unearthed by obtaining foreign bank accounts and financial statements of various foreign dummy entities through various sources.”

The agency has also found that after the case broke out, one of Nirav’s brothers, Nehal, got a secure server located in the UAE destroyed. The ED said that through that server, the accused and others used to communicate secretly with close aides. “Printouts of some of the incriminating email communications of this secret server have been obtained by us from Dubai,” the ED said.

Investigators found Nirav’s sister Purvi and brother Neeshal also allegedly operated shell companies through layers based out of the British Virgin Islands (BVI) and Dubai to launder money. In the first layer, a consultant from Dubai was holding the shares of two BVI companies, namely Madison Capital Private limited and Moore Private Investments Limited, on behalf of Purvi and Neeshal up to 2012. In the second layer, 10 BVI companies were formed by the same firm and in the third layer, eight onshore companies were incorporated in Dubai by the firm as per instructions from Nirav. These third layer companies were recipients of fraudulent LOUs from PNB, the ED said.

ED tracked officials of this firm in Dubai and their statements were recorded under PMLA.

First Published: Mar 13, 2019 08:52 IST