ED files chargesheet against Gautam Khaitan, his wife in money laundering case

NEW DELHI: Within two weeks of attaching 10 properties worth over Rs 8 crore of lawyer Gautam Khaitan, the Enforcement Directorate on Monday filed a chargesheet against him and his wife, both accused of money laundering in a black money case.

Khaitan is also being probed in the AgustaWestland bribery case in which the agency has filed another case of money laundering.

Khaitan is accused of laundering money on behalf of his clients in the guise of providing legal consultancy.

The ED probe revealed that Khaitan had six foreign bank accounts, some in his name, others owned by him through 100% shareholding and in joint name with his father and wife in three banks in Singapore and Mauritius — Barclays Bank, Singapore Bank and UBS Bank.

“On analyzing these bank accounts it was revealed that he had received huge payments in foreign currencies. Documents from foreign banks through Letters of Request were received from Singapore and Mauritius,” the agency claimed.

“Gautam Khaitan holds bank accounts either singly or in joint names of his family members as well as corporate structures with beneficial interest in three banks in foreign jurisdiction namely, Barclays Bank, Singapore Bank andUBS Bank,” ED said.

In its chargesheet, the agency claimed that Khaitan received Rs 850 crores approximately in his foreign accounts.

“Gautam Khaitan has created structures vizcompanies which are under his control to launder the Proceeds of Crime related to criminal activities such as kickbacks of defence deals,” ED said.

On March 11, the ED attached Khaitan’s properties located in Delhi, Haryana and Uttarakhand. The book value of the assets is Rs 8.46 crores, while the present market value is much higher, ED had claimed.

Khaitan has been accused of having undisclosed foreign assets and bank accounts which he had failed to disclose in his Income Tax return. A case was earlier filed by the Income Tax under the Black Money Act which was the basis for the ED to register a money laundering case against him.

“It was also revealed during investigation that he had been laundering money through various bank accounts in Singapore and Mauritius and willfully did not disclose the relevant information in his returns,” the agency claimed.

Khaitan was arrested by ED on January 25 this year and was interrogated till February 8, after which he was remanded to judicial custody. Last week Income Tax officials questioned him in Tihar jail related to his undisclosed funds stashed abroad in foreign banks.