The Enforcement Directorate has filed a chargesheet against three persons and a company for allegedly cheating foreign nationals on the pretext of investments in flats and villas located in Goa.
The accused have been identified as Sunil Kumar, Ankit Kumar, Synthia Durbhatkar Jain and Sanatan Financers & Real Estate Private Limited. The money-laundering probe is based on an FIR registered by the Goa police against the company and others, following receipt of complaints from several foreign nationals.
The ED found that Ankit and Sunil received about ₹7.73 crore from the victims, through the Foreign Direct Investment route, in the accounts of various shell companies incorporated by them. The funds were then laundered and credited to the bank accounts of Sanatan Financers & Real Estates. They were allegedly used for the construction of flats and villas in one “Peace Valley” project in Goa’s Quepem.
As it turned out, the foreign nationals were lured into investing funds in the shell companies on the pretext of selling to them flats and villas in Quepem. However, their ownerships were never transferred to them.
Based on the findings, the agency had last year attached 16 villas worth ₹2.56 crore and 56 flats worth ₹5.17 crore in Goa, while the balance amount in the bank accounts of Sanatan Financers & Real Estates was also attached. The ED had earlier arrested Ankit and conducted searches in the premises of the suspects.