Didn't commit fraud, says firm under ED scanner
The firm told the ED that the 13 UAE firms had not paid it for the exports and as a result of which it had moved courts there against the customers.
Mumbai: A Mumbai-based jewellery export firm, which is under the scanner of the Enforcement Directorate’s alleged money-laundering probe for irregularities related to alleged default on bank loans worth around Rs 1,658 crore for exporting jewellery to 13 United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based firms, has clarified to the agency that it committed no fraud.
The firm told the ED that the 13 UAE firms had not paid it for the exports and as a result of which it had moved courts there against the customers.
The firm, Winsome Diamonds & Jewellery Limited (WDJL), cited orders of the Sharjah Federal Court of First Instance, Ministry of Justice, UAE asking the 13 UAE firms to pay their dues to the Mumbai firm, according to an ED source.
The ED source said, “We are verifying the firm’s version. It said it had taken legal actions against the 13 UAE firms in that country and the court had directed the firms there to pay up the dues.”
The ED is conducting a probe against WDJL and an associate firm in connection with alleged irregularities linked to their default of loans worth around Rs 1,658
crore by a public-sector bank.
According to the source, the accused firms had allegedly availed the loan for the purchase of gold and diamonds from bullion banks and used them to export diamond-gold jewellery to the 13 customers located in UAE. The 13 firms were allegedly represented by Haytham Salman Ali, a Jordanian national.
The ED had in May last year attached assets worth Rs 172 crore of the firm in connection with its money-laundering probe.
It was claimed by the firm that in 2013, the 13 UAE-based firms controlled by Ali had failed to pay their dues to it as a result of which the default took place, according to the source.
The agency had sent a Letters Rogatory (LR) to Jordan, seeking details from its authorities related to the accused firms’ transactions with the 13 UAE firm via their representative Ali.
According to the ED source, it was claimed that the Jordanian national controlled the 13 UAE firms, which failed to remit money to pay for the exports, as a result of which the accused firms could not pay back the bullion banks, and then the default on the public-sector bank’s loan took place.