The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has confiscated Rs 4,109 crore in properties spread across multiple states in connection with a mega ponzi scam that duped 32 lakh people of Rs 6,000 crore and arrested the promoters of a company, said media reports.
The ED arrested Avva Venkata Rama Rao, Avva Venkata S Narayana Rao and Avva Hema Sundara Vara Prasad — the promoters of Agri Gold Group of Companies, said a report.”The attached assets include 2,809 landed properties, Haailand Amusement Park in the name of Arka Leisure and Entertainments Private Limited in Andhra Pradesh (spread over 48 acres) and shares of various companies, plants and machinery,” the Enforcement Directorate quoted as saying in the report.The assets attached by ED under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act are in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Telangana.
The agency, which probes financial crimes, swung into action after it learned about various police cases filed against the accused in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka alleging them of duping as many as 32 lakh people of Rs 6,380 crore, added the report.The ED said Avva Venkata Rama Rao planned the entire scam and implemented it with the help of his seven brothers and associates amid, setting up 150 fake companies and using them to lure people in investing their money in false farm and housing development projects.Thousands of agents were employed to collect money from depositors, the ED said. The funds were siphoned off by the family members of Avva Venkata Rama Rao and illegally invested in their companies.”Subsequently, however, investors neither got plots nor could recover their deposits,” the agency said.
The names of the accused had also appeared in 2017 Paradise Paper Leak and they had reportedly set up companies with the help of notorious Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca in the Cayman Islands, added the report.
