The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday attached assets worth Rs 2,300 crore, including two dozen hotels and resorts in West Bengal, in connection with its investigation into the Rose Valley Ponzi scam, PTI reported.
The agency issued a provisional order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. It is reportedly one of the single largest attachments of properties that the agency has ordered under the anti-money laundering law. The Enforcement Directorate has seized assets worth Rs 4,200 crore till date in its investigation into the case.
The Kolkata-based company has been accused of running a Ponzi scam and cheating investors of more than Rs 17,000 crore across the eastern states of Assam, West Bengal, Tripura and Bihar, in one of the biggest chit fund scams in India. Many high-profile individuals, including Trinamool Congress MPs Tapas Pal and Sudip Bandyopadhyay, have been arrested.
The agency alleged that the company had promised inflated returns between 8% and 27% on investments. It had also allegedly pledged astronomical returns to depositors on land properties and real-estate assets, and then made “cross investments” in various sister firms to hide its liabilities to investors.
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