The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday raided multiple locations in Mumbai in connection with the case against chartered Accountant and investment consultant Amber Rameshchandra Dalal, who is accused of duping 2,009 investors, mostly from Mumbai, to the tune of Rs 1,100 crore.
The central agency also seized and froze assets worth Rs 37 crore belonging to Dalal and his family. Dalal is currently in judicial custody.
The ED has registered an ECIR under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 against Dalal, proprietor of M/s Ritz Consultancy Services, on the basis of Mumbai police EOW’s FIR filed on the complaint of a Juhu based fashion designer in March this year.
After dodging police for 12 days, he was finally arrested on March 26 from a hotel in Uttarakhand’s Rishikesh.
After nearly three months’ investigation, EOW on Friday filed a 44,000-page chargesheet at the special Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (MPID) Act. EOW officials hinted they identified Dalal’s properties worth Rs 17 crore.
During their ongoing probe, the central agency raided several premises of Dalal and his associates on Friday and it included Dalal’s Oshiwara residence.
During the searches movable assets — cash, bank funds, Demat account holdings to the tune of Rs 37 crore — have been frozen and various incriminating documents, digital devices have been found and seized, the agency stated on Sunday.
Promising monthly returns of 1.5 to 1.8 per cent on investments, Dalal allegedly duped investors under the pretext of further investing their money in trading of risk-free commodities.
After 2016, he started accepting only investments above Rs 10 lakh. Till February this year, he has paid investors regular interests.
Among those who were duped by Dalal were artists working in Bollywood, businessmen, lawyers and even chartered accountants, the EOW has said.
After defaulting in payment to investors between March 10 and 13, the 59-year-old Oshiwara resident Dalal had gone into hiding and later on arrested following Mumbai police’s FIR.
The ED’s investigation revealed that Dalal raised money from investors on the pretext that he invested the funds in nine commodities (gold, silver, crude oil, natural gas, zinc, lead, nickel, copper, aluminum) and trade in them, ensuring the capital is safe and promising an annual return of 18- 22 per cent to his investors.
Further, it has been gathered that using the same modus operandi, he raised money from investors in UAE and USA as well.
“The search operations unveiled a network of stockbrokers, investment advisors who brought clients in lieu of commission. It is also found that payments received from new investments were being utilized to pay out the monthly returns to the old investors,” ED said in a statement.
Dalal diverted the funds received in Ritz’s account to personal accounts, which were further routed to family member’s accounts and used for creating assets, ED statement said.
He has diverted approximately Rs 51 crore to his personal accounts. These funds were used to acquire assets in India and abroad.
Eight such immovable properties in India and two such properties have been identified abroad, ED has said.
The anti-money laundering agency’s probe also revealed that, other than from banking channels, investments were made through cash as well, which was then infused in books as accommodation entries in connivance with Mumbai-based jewellers.
Returns on such cash-based investments were given to investors in India and abroad (including UK, UAE) by hawala operators, the agency added.
An EOW source said that during the custodial interrogation, Dalal claimed before the investigators that his formulas and methods of trading on commodities have failed after slump in the market due to the Covid-19 outbreak, which is why he was unable to deliver money to his investors.
