Press Trust Of India
Bhubaneswar, Jan 9: The enforcement directorate (ED) Friday attached assets worth Rs 84 crore in connection with its money-laundering probe against Orissa-based Seashore group of companies in an alleged chit fund scam case.
The ED’s zonal office here issued the orders under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as it attached ` Rs 3 crore cash deposits and land properties in the capital city, Sambalpur and other locations of the rest value of the total attachment of Rs 84 crore.
This is the second attachment by the agency in this case.
It had earlier frozen ` Rs 158 crore worth of assets of the firm in December last, which included 200 kg of silver coins, 13 plush flats in various parts of the state, vast tracts of land in Angul, Bhadrak, Mayurbhanj and other places, a corporate office valued at `30 crore in Bhubaneswar, two factories in Mayurbhanj, 1.4 kg of gold coins and other immovable assets in the state.
The case pertains to the alleged duping of investors under a ponzi scheme floated by the company whose CMD Prashant Dash has already been arrested and grilled by the state Economic Offences Wing (EOW) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the two agencies also probing this case.
An attachment under PMLA laws is aimed at depriving the accussed from the benefits of his or her ill-gotten wealth.
The company is one of the prominent business groups among a clutch of 44 ponzi companies operating in the state that are under the scanner of CBI and ED after an order of the Supreme Court in this regard.
