Mumbai, Nov 14 (FN Agency) In a latest devolpment the Enforcement Directorate (ED) Mumbai has attached property of Amber Dalal and others in Rs 600 crore alleged Ponzi scam, The Enforcement Directorate has issued provisional attachment orders on assets of Amber Dalal and others, official said here on Thursday. The attachment included fixed and movable assets valued at around Rs 22.86 crore. The property attached included plots of land and residential flats in Mumbai and Thane, insurance policies, investments of Amber Dalal and his firm Ritz Consultancy, his accomplice Rashmi Prasad, and his family members. This takes the total attachments of property of the Dalal family to Rs 67 crore till date under the PMLA Act for suspected money-laundering , the ED said.
As per the Mumbai Police and ED investigations, Dalal had allegedly taken huge money from investors for a purported Ponzi scheme, promising high returns and then disappearing their cash, after handing out the initial returns. The Mumbai Police first filed the case and probed to find that Dalal had allegedly swindled over Rs 600 crore from 1,300 gullible investors lured in the Ponzi racket, and later it was taken over by the ED for the money-laundering angle. The Mumbai Police EOW had probed the case, arrested Dalal and he is presently in judicial custody, while further probe is underway. Prior to the Nov. 8 action, the ED had provisionally attacked a flat of Rashmi Prasad in Dubai, worth around Rs. 4.95 crores, and it is suspected that the funds cheated from the investors were routed to buy it, as also other properties in different names. This is the third ED action in the same case during the past six months, with previous raids carried out on September. 3 and June 21, and so far assets worth Rs. 67 crores have been attached/frozen by the central probe agency.