BENGALURU: The Enforcement Directorate (ED), which has begun its investigation into the I Monetory Advisory (IMA) investment scam running into thousands of crores, on Friday attached assets worth Rs 209 crore.
The attached assets included immovable properties worth Rs 197 crore, Rs 98 lakh from 51 bank accounts and Rs 11 crore from HDFC Bank, held in the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Deposit Scheme. The ED invoked the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) to seize the assets.
After the IMA scam became public in the second week of June, the ED took cognisance of the scam and filed a criminal case of money laundering against the IMA group of companies and its absconding Managing Director Mohammad Mansoor Khan. The ED in a press note said, "The investigations under PMLA revealed that the accused companies and its directors have indulged in the offence of Money Laundering by cheating common people through Ponzi schemes and generated the proceeds of crime in the form of movable and immovable properties."
Mansoor Khan, according to ED, was running a Ponzi scheme and attracted investors by offering 2.5 to 3 percent monthly returns.
"Investigations revealed that the IMA Group was not doing any business to pay the promised monthly return on the investments made by public and that Mansoor Khan was running a Ponzi scheme and they were all working on the instructions of Mansoor Khan," the press note read. The ED has identified 20 immovable properties held in the name of Mansoor Khan and his entities as proceeds of crime. The valuation of 20 immovable properties is about Rs 197 crore as evaluated by the approved government valuators.
