Rs 1,000 cr laundering case: ED search on bank tied to Maharashtra NCP chief Jayant Patil

MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday searched 14 premises in Western Maharashtra, including the office of the Rajarambapu Sahakari Bank Ltd (RSBL) linked to NCP state unit president Jayant Patil in Sangli, in a money laundering case related to suspicious transactions involving around Rs 1,000 crore over a decade ago.
Among the premises searched were of a chartered accountant (CA), who the ED suspects of having helped several companies convert legitimate money to illegitimate and vice versa through fictitious business transactions for a commission.
Several big groups from the city were among the suspected companies, said people with knowledge of the case in the ED. The ED probe found the CA helped the companies convert their legitimate money into cash as they required it for unexplained expenses, including for paying bribes.
The ED case is that several accounts were opened in the RSBL with forged KYC documents and large sums transferred to these accounts against fictitious reasons. The money was then withdrawn from the accounts in cash, which the bank failed to report to authorities. It is alleged that the CA had several shell companies and opened accounts in their name along with several others in the bank by providing forged documents.
The ED suspects the bank deliberately concealed the information. Patil did not respond to messages seeking his comment on the ED searches. The three-year-old money laundering case is based on an FIR filed by the goods and service tax department with the police in 2011 related to fraudulent claims of value-added tax.
The CA would allegedly show that he had sold raw material to the companies by providing fake bills and invoices to them in the name of his shell firms. The companies would allegdly transfer the money through RTGS into the shell company accounts in RSBL.
The CA would then return the money to the companies in cash after deducting his commission. "In some instances, Rs 30 crore was withdrawn in cash, which was highly suspicious and also flouted the guidelines," an ED source said. "The ED suspects the involvement of bank management in these suspicious transactions, so the agency decided to search the bank premises also." People close to the case in ED said that in 2011 the bank wasn't named as an accused in the police case but during its investigations ED found evidence indicating the bank's role in facilitating the opening of shell company accounts and enabling suspicious transactions.