AHMEDABAD: Multiple teams of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) carried out search at True Value Management Consultancy Pvt Ltd and Vipul & Manish Associates on Thursday.
The searches, involving teams from Gujarat and other states like Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, went on till late night at six locations as the officials gathered a huge stash of documents, said sources close to the development.
“The group, having its office in Satellite, came onto the agency radar in connection with Ardor Group investigation where properties worth Rs 204 crore were attached. The officials got to know that a group was helping a few firms in audits of their books and also securing loans from the banks based on accounting statements. The same group also forayed into realty sector later,” said an official close to the development.
Sources said that the group under lens would first convince the firms that they could borrow a good amount of money based on their books of account. The group would then allegedly create fake entities on paper or invest in non-existent firms and inflate the firm’s turnover through circular transactions or trading. As the banks provided money more than the actual assets of the firm, the firm would later on become insolvent.
“The group had used the same modus operandi multiple times. As they played roles of both the auditors and brokers for loans, the cooked-up books were not detected in time, and investors lost money. The probe is on to ascertain the scope of money laundering as a large number of documents are found which would be probed to ascertain the presence of dummy companies,” said an official.
The searches, involving teams from Gujarat and other states like Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, went on till late night at six locations as the officials gathered a huge stash of documents, said sources close to the development.
“The group, having its office in Satellite, came onto the agency radar in connection with Ardor Group investigation where properties worth Rs 204 crore were attached. The officials got to know that a group was helping a few firms in audits of their books and also securing loans from the banks based on accounting statements. The same group also forayed into realty sector later,” said an official close to the development.
Sources said that the group under lens would first convince the firms that they could borrow a good amount of money based on their books of account. The group would then allegedly create fake entities on paper or invest in non-existent firms and inflate the firm’s turnover through circular transactions or trading. As the banks provided money more than the actual assets of the firm, the firm would later on become insolvent.
“The group had used the same modus operandi multiple times. As they played roles of both the auditors and brokers for loans, the cooked-up books were not detected in time, and investors lost money. The probe is on to ascertain the scope of money laundering as a large number of documents are found which would be probed to ascertain the presence of dummy companies,” said an official.