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NEW DELHI: Pearl Agro Corp Ltd, a multi-level marketing firm that promised plot allotments to lakhs across the country and deceived investors and regulators for nearly two decades, raised more than Rs 60,000 crore and siphoned off most of it into personal assets in India and abroad, according to an ED probe report. On Sunday, ED said it has managed to locate 37 properties of the accused in Ludhiana and Jaipur worth Rs 2,000 crore and attached these.The total attachment in the case has reached Rs 7,600 crore, ED said. The fresh attachment includes a prime land close to Jaipur airport worth over Rs 1,500 crore, sources said. In less than two months, between Dec and now, the agency has attached assets of PACL and its promoter Nirmal Singh Bhangoo, worth over Rs 6,000 crore, in its ongoing money laundering investigation in the case.An estimate by Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), which is also probing the case, revealed that nearly six crore investors have been cheated by Bhangoo and his associates over the past two decades. The magnitude of the crime is such that Supreme Court constituted a committee headed by Justice RM Lodha to ensure smooth restitution of lost money through the sale of assets attached by ED.The main accused and promoter of PACL, Bhangoo, has died and his wife Prem Kaur, two daughters Barinder and Sukhwinder Kaur, son-in-law Gurpratap Singh and close associate Prateek Kumar are wanted by ED to establish the money trail. The accused are absconding – not joining the investigation – while non-bailable warrants have been issued against them, according to a senior official.Despite CBI and Punjab police having registered multiple FIRs, since as early as 2014, against Bhangoo and his associates, the probe did not achieve much as the “proceeds of crime” could not be traced. The initial money trail established by ED revealed the accused had siphoned off the money by depositing them in Kolkata-based shell companies, withdrawing cash and then laundering them to Dubai through hawala dealers to buy hotels and resorts overseas, including Australia.ED began its money laundering probe in 2016 and has filed three prosecution complaints (chargesheets) so far while investigation is still in progress to identify assets of the accused. In 2018, ED had attached two properties of the accused in Australia worth Rs 462 crore. Investors across Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Maharashtra, Telengana, Karnataka, West Bengal, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand have lost their money to the collective investment, or ponzi scheme.The attached assets once confirmed by the PMLA adjudicating authority are confiscated by ED, and the details of these properties are then shared with Justice Lodha Committee, appointed by the SC for overseeing the process of disposing of properties and to refund the amount to investors, according to a senior ED official. Go to Source
