Trader accused of laundering money had links with Koda: ED

Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) probe against four Zaveri Bazaar bullion traders revealed that each of them had created at least eight shell companies for undertaking money-laundering transactions.

The agency’s probe found that one of the traders has links with an alleged hawala operator, Manoj Punamiya, who had earlier come under the scanner in the money-laundering scam related to former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda. Punamiya, a close aide of Koda, was arrested in 2010 for allegedly helping Koda launder money, and had been granted bail only seven months ago, in April, by the Jharkhand high court. The ED, late on Friday night, had raided four establishments located in South Mumbai's Zaveri Bazaar, acting on an input that the traders were converting black money by purchasing precious metals.

Following demonetisation, the traders were allegedly using denotified Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes and getting them converted to gold bullions. The ED had also frozen two accounts with Rs 1.5 crore as deposit amount after the raids.

Speaking to The Asian Age, an ED official privy to the investigation said that one of the bullion traders whose establishment was raided had alleged links to Punamiya, who came under the scanner in 2009 after Koda was arrested in connection with a graft case and a mining scam. “One of the firms which was raided, Balaji Bullions & Commodities Private Limited, is co-owned by Punamiya. We are investigating who deposited the money into the accounts owned by shell companies created by his firm,” the official said.

Punamiya was arrested in 2010 after Koda was found to be involved in the multi-million-dollar mining scam. Punamiya’s firm was allegedly central to Koda’s operations and helped him siphon off the money he made by issuing mining licences by providing them the import-export cover.

The official also revealed that each of the traders’ bank accounts and companies registered under their name were being investigated. “We have found that each of them had at least eight shell companies and bank accounts registered to act as fronts for money laundering and conversion of the said money to bullion,” the official said.