India News | ED Attaches Assets Worth over Rs 762 Crore in PACL Case

New Delhi, Jul 12 (PTI) Assets worth more than Rs 762 crore of PACL (the Pearls Group) and its promoters have been attached under the anti-money laundering law in a case linked to an alleged Rs 48,000 crore Ponzi scheme, in which numerous investors were duped, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said on Saturday.

A provisional order has been issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to attach the 68 immovable properties located across Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Maharashtra, and in Australia, the central probe agency said in a statement.

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The money-laundering probe of 2015 stems from a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) FIR against Pearl Agrotech Corporation Limited (PACL), PGF Limited, its main promoter, late Nirmal Singh Bhangoo, and others for operating "fraudulent" investment schemes to deceive investors.

Through these schemes, PACL and its directors "defrauded" the investors of about Rs 48,000 crore, the ED said.

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"The funds fraudulently collected from lakhs of gullible investors were systematically diverted and layered through multiple transactions to conceal their illicit origin," the agency added.

The attached assets are in the name of Bhangoo, his family members and entities related to PACL, it said.

The total value of these properties is Rs 762.47 crore, the ED said.

Bhangoo died in August last year.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)