Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached assets of private firm Kanishk Gold Pvt. Ltd that are located in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu and worth Rs 138 crore under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The firm has been accused of defrauding a consortium of banks to the tune of Rs 824 crore. The ED probe showed that the firm had allegedly borrowed from the bank consortium in lieu of stocks of gold and jewellery that turned out to be non-existent.
According to an ED source, the firm had “unduly enjoyed bank borrowings” in the form of working capital credit facilities from a consortium of 14 banks from 2009.
The firm has a its manufacturing facility in Maduranthagam, Kanch-eepuram district and was making gold jewellery under the ‘KRIZZ’ brand. The firm was earlier booked for cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy by the CBI. “The credit facilities extended to the firm were secured by the primary raw material of gold bullion, semi-finished goods and finished goods of gold and other stores showing huge stocks. The firm had also mortgaged several immovable properties with the bank consortium as collateral securities,” said an official.
The official said, “The probe, however, later sho-wed that the stock statements were fudged with the help of charted acco-untants and on inspection by the banks in May 2017, it was found that was there no gold or jewellery stock.”
